


Aventia

by 132364



Category: Aventia
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Aliens, Human stuck on an alien planet and wants to survive, Mentions of Suicide, More tags will be added as the story progresses, Original Story - Freeform, Telepathy talks, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2020-10-26 07:16:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 50,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20738357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/132364/pseuds/132364
Summary: Pilot finds themselves stuck on an alien planet and has to survive what the planet's inhabitants got in store for them.





	1. Beginning

_[Engine Damage: 20%.] _

_The jet’s computer flashed the message up at us after we hit an asteroid. We were supposed to get to a planet the computer had picked up but it failed at informing us about the asteroid belt we had to get through and it proved to not be easy to dodge rocks at all. _

_”Man, space made you suck at dodging.” The man beside me chuckled and I rolled my eyes in slight annoyance. _

_”If we weren’t in this situation I would beat your ass right now.” _

_”I’d like to see you try, shorty.”_

_Even though I did not look at his direction, I knew he gave me a shiteating grin that made me want to punch him. But first things first, we have to solve the asteroid problem. _

_”There is one approaching.” He said and I steadied myself, knowing I would not be able to dodge that one in time. _

* * *

Warmth... 

Wake up.

Warmth?

Wake up! 

Sun?

_Wake up!_

I woke up feeling the sun’s rays slowly heating up the ground beneath me and my cold skin regaining some of the energy that had been lost. The air around me was still cool as it stung my nasal cavity and my lungs whenever I took a deep breath in. I could hear the sound of ocean and waves crashing on rocks close by but everything else was silent around me. My vision was too blurry when I tried to look at the surroundings. _I have to get up from the ground_. Carefully, I lifted my upper body up from the ground with shaky arms and sat up, dizzy and parched from… falling? Running? I could not remember what happened last night, my head hurt too much for me to think properly.

_Beep._  
_ Beep._  
_ Beep._

A strange noise was suddenly heard coming from nearby, a faint beeping noise. I was not sure how long it went on but I raised my head up, curious at what- _where_ that noise was coming from. I struggled to stand up from the massive headache so I went with crawling on the ground instead which, from someone else’s perspective, might have looked ridiculous. I moved through the tall grass and high bushes looking for that beeping.

The noise was growing louder which meant I was getting closer to the source. With the little strength I got, I crawled up to a large rock and placed my hands on the cold, hard surface and forced my legs to lift my body up while the rock helped keeping my balance steady. It took a moment to make sure it was okay for me to move without toppling over like a drunk giraffe, and I managed to take a few steps past the rock before staring directly at the source. I could not help but to feel... confused.

A jet. No, a space jet was right there, half buried under the sand against a rock, with the windshield and a part of the nose smashed completely from an impact, the shards were scattered across the sand and the left wing was awkwardly bent upwards. I stared in shock and confusion at what I was seeing. Why was it there? What happened to it?

A short ruffling sound was heard coming from the bushes behind me, breaking my distraction from the jet and I turned my head to look around. Nothing was making noise other than the ocean winds moving the foliage around and branches hitting each other.

“Did I imagine it..?” I mumbled to myself, growing nervous at the thought of something watching me from the bushes and decided to return my attention back to the beeping jet and forget what I had heard. It was not important at the moment.

I walked at a slow pace to the jet while maintaining a good balance and scanned for an entrance. There was no entrance to be seen on the sides. I was not pleased with it as it meant I had to walk more to find it and if it were not for the rock blocking the way into the jet, I would have crawled right in, even if I risked cutting up something from the broken remains of the windshield still attached to the jet. I went to the right side of the jet and spotted the thick, black text. On the good right wing, there was a symbol of a ringed planet with a rocket following the ring and next to the symbol was written;

**H.S.E Peregrine**

Then as if my brain decided to not be confused anymore, I was slapped in the face with the realization of what had happened last night. I was in this jet and we were about to crash land. My eyes quickly darted around the landscape and suddenly everything looked so different and _alien_. This was not Earth. My heart rate was picking up speed as everything was starting to come back to me and I began to panic. Filled with energy, I hurriedly ran around the jet to find an entrance.

After a moment of searching and almost getting frustrated, I eventually found it on top of the aircraft completely open and exposed. _The door must have broken off at some point during the crash_, I thought as I climbed down into the jet and saw a person leaning on the flight controls and panels. A red light was blinking on the roof of the aircraft and the beeping noise was coming from the panels. The sun shone through the gap of the broken windshield, bringing in enough light to see inside the jet without needing a flashlight. That must be the pilot.

“Hello?” I called out to the person. No sound, they were unresponsive.

I had a growing bad feeling about it and walked up to the body to make sure they were alright. However, I paused when I saw broken shards on the panels and red splattered on the buttons, dripping down to the floor that had built up a small puddle overnight. There was my answer. My heart was still beating fast from panic and I tried to calm myself down even though this situation made it incredibly difficult.

_I am all alone._

The thought of being alone never scared me until now. I was alone and stranded on a goddamn alien planet with a dead pilot with me and with no clue on how to get home! My lungs were starting to hurt from my erratic breathing, my throat felt dry as sand and all the energy I had before quickly vanished from my body as I grew dizzy again. I covered my face with my hands in pain, the damn beeping echoing inside my skull.

I felt sudden warmth radiate across my face and carefully, I moved my hands away to see the blood that coated my white gloves.

Oh, I’ve been bleeding this entire time.

Oh..

“That’s not good.” I said to myself before I passed out on the metal floor.

* * *

_ [Engine Damage: 60%. Landing is required.]_

_ The panel in front of us flashed the text in bright red. A siren-like noise went off when the jet shook violently again in response to hitting another asteroid. I gritted my teeth and strengthened my grip on the joystick, focusing on getting us through the asteroid belt without damaging it. Though that was not what the computer system told us. _

_ [Engine Damage: 78%. Landing is required.] _

_ “We have to land this thing.” said the man sitting on the seat beside me, pressing frantically on buttons. _

_ “Yeah, no shit. How far away are we from the planet?” I asked, trying to cancel out the noises and ignore the red flashes of light dancing around us from the ceiling. The man looked at another screen and said that it was two days away from us, if we kept flying in our current speed. Not enough. _

_ “We have to go faster than that, we won’t make it like this.” he said with a worried tone in his voice and went to try the comms again in hopes of getting an answer from those damned scientists back home, even after multiple times of me telling him that they would most likely not answer us, he kept trying. I somewhat appreciated his attempts. I could only nod and kept my eyes glued onto the space rocks drifting around us and the Earth-like planet a distance away. There were no other way for us to land elsewhere, at that point we were too far away from Earth. _

_ I moved my hand to open up a small hatch which hid an emergency button. The button would not be touched at any circumstances unless it was last resort. That was what they told us. My hand hovered over the button as I turned to look at the man, who did the same thing and our eyes were locked for a moment. I could tell that he knew. _

_ “The engine won’t handle it.” _

_ “I know.” My fingers touched the button and kept them there. “We have no other choice. Do you want to survive this? If you don’t, then the gun is strapped to your leg.” I stared at him, waiting for an answer as I could see fear build up in his eyes. He was terrified and admittedly, I was the same, however I do not wish do die from stupid space rocks in a stupid jet in space. I would rather die on the ground where my body can decompose freely than be a frozen statue… just drifting in space. Like the others we had to leave behind…_

_ “What will it be, Thomas?” _

_ “Do it.” _

* * *

I had woken up a few hours later with throbbing pain in my head whenever I moved it and found myself propped up against the wall. The jet was silent now and the red light had stopped blinking. The bleeding on my head had stopped and the wound was covered in some strange material that had soaked up the blood. Was it something I did but could not remember doing it? It was odd since I had not seen anyone else around that whole time and there were still nobody else here except for me and ... Thomas. I got up from my sitting position to have a better look on the body than I did during my panicked state and noticed things I did not see before. 

Thomas’ legs were stuck- or pinned between the seat and against the bottom of the flight controls. The impact on the cockpit must have moved the controls down onto his legs and crushed them. His nails were ruined from scratching on the metal to free himself in panic. I winced slightly from seeing his hands and legs and felt bad for him. The pain must have been unbearable and it was impossible to get him out like that without the right equipment to do so. Which… was probably why he was still holding onto the gun on his left hand. I never noticed the gun until now and the hole coming out from the back of his head explains a lot now. If I got here earlier he would have still been alive and I could help him somehow but, it was too late now. 

Thomas was not that old, around 28 years old or so. He was a very gifted man with a lot of patience and skills on the subjects of aeronautics and piloting. He had also told me once that he was going to marry the love of his life when we were supposed to return back to Earth. My heart ached thinking back to it now. Thomas was trapped on an alien planet, pinned between the plane and the seat and I was not even able to pry him out and bury him! They will not see each other ever again and it was my fault. Thomas is dead because of _ me _. I quietly climbed out and sat on top of the aircraft and cried to myself for God knows how long. It did not help the fact that I was stuck here too as some kind of punishment for landing here. Maybe… maybe I should go out like Thomas before I suffer a worse fate than he did.

_ Crack! _

My head flew up, breaking me away from my cries, to the noise of something stepping on a branch? I completely forgot that this planet could have creatures living in it. In response to the noise, I cautiously moved to sit on one knee and observe the surroundings in front of me. The ‘trees’ were yellowish in colour with large leaves positioned upwards to the sun above and stretched far out into the forest of many colours. The leaves made large shadows beneath them which made it harder to see into the forest. If there was something out there watching me then it was clever enough to stay quiet and still under the shadows to not be spotted by me. _ Or it was waiting for the right moment to strike when I least expect it _, I thought as I wiped away tears from my cheeks. Though perhaps it was a shy creature? No, it could not be. After watching a few space-themed horror movies back on Earth, it was difficult to really trust anything alien to us. Only idiots would be dumb enough to approach one carelessly. 

Whatever it was, it was not coming out from the trees and after a while of watching them, I had enough and went back inside to find something to drink. I was still very dehydrated and needed water. Fortunately, the jet had canned and freeze-dried food as well as cold water stored though only enough for a week or two if I ration it properly. Other than that, I was stranded and had nowhere else to go. I went out again to watch the treeline and ate canned soup with beans to replenish my energy. It did not taste that great but I could not be ungrateful, it filled up my stomach and the water helped me feel much better even with the pain still lingering on my head. 

I had to admit that the forest looked absolutely gorgeous. The outer trees reaching the beach were small in comparison to the inner trees that grew tall and steady. They were yellow as well but much further back into the forest there was a line of new different trees with darker colours. I was not close enough to see them better but they were definitely different from the beach trees. I supposed they were another species of ‘tree’ or… whatever they actually were, I had no idea. I am not a florist. The sun was a few hours away from setting and I had initially planned on watching the sunset go down behind the treeline horizon before going back inside to prepare a proper bed to sleep on.

A rustle from the treetops made me pause my eating and focused on one tree I thought the noise came from, just to see if it would rustle again. Another happened but it was from another tree and I moved my eyes to look at it, perplexed at what was happening. What was moving that fast? The rustling continued before stopping entirely and nothing happened for several minutes after that. 

“What the hell was that?” I mumbled to myself and continued eating my bean soup until a loud noise from the forest startled me enough to drop the spoon. I picked up the spoon and hurriedly went back inside the jet with my soup. “Nope, not dealing with aliens today!”

_ Fuck that. _

* * *

Night soon came around and I had trouble sleeping, not only because of the pain and that we had no fucking painkillers, but because I was thinking as well. I tend to think a lot when I could not sleep. I was mainly wondering what to do in the morning as there was much to fix and prepare in order for me to survive whatever the hell I was going to face. Find a water source, edible food, fix up the jet and find a way to get Thomas out from here so I could bury him. He did not deserve to lay there like a dead coyote ensnared and rotting away. I let out a sigh and moved to face the hole on the roof of the aircraft where I could see the night sky.

The night sky was always lovely to look at. It looked like any regular night sky except this one was not polluted. It was clean and free from the poison that had severed our connection with the stars back on Earth. It was sad but... we have gotten the warnings _many_ times before and people still ignored it. Now we have nothing to look at except the moon and city lights, unless you lived outside the cities. You would have a better chance at living healthy but still risk getting sick from the radiation if you happened to accidentally enter a radiation zone. Even if you did not enter one, there are landmines scattered around random places, cameras and machines guarding the the gates, making it difficult for you to exit and enter further without proving you are not up to something shady. I know many that have gotten killed or jailed from trying to escape. 

I sighed again in disappointment, closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

What a cruel world we lived in. I hoped this one was nicer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of a story I am excited to finally write about! I hope whoever reads it will enjoy it and I will be happy to get some comments about grammar and such since English is not my first language. I am only looking to improve and provide stories about my headworlds :)
> 
> Enjoy!


	2. The Search

This planet’s day and night cycles was strange. It was still dark when it was supposed to be early morning, which would be 6AM, and the sunrise didn't show up until three hours later. I was wide awake when I had first woken up and while waiting for the sunrise, ate a small portion of the freeze-dried food I found yesterday. The packages had a lot of different foods, from potato chicken stew to berries, but I went for the jerky since I needed the other meals for later and even though I wasn't used to the taste of beef jerky, it was still food and I could somehow enjoy it.

The meal packages and several water bottles were stuffed into a large backpack I found and then went to take a peek out from the jet, in case there was something out there ready to attack me. It was _ so _quiet and despite the ocean winds blasting through here, there were no sounds of life anywhere except those noises from yesterday. This beach was the most dead beach I have ever been on and I was not sure if I enjoyed it or was unnerved by it. I went down inside the jet and prepared some more by adding in essentials, first-aid kit and weapons that were available; a bulky-looking shotgun and a sidearm. 

The shotgun was difficult to place as it was pretty large and heavy, which would hinder my speed and movements drastically. I was only going to walk inside the forest to find a water source so I took the sidearm with me instead. The shotgun might help me if I decided to leave the jet one day. _ Not until I can find a way to pry him out _, I thought and glanced back to the body behind me. He started to look stiff as rigor mortis was slowly taking full effect on his body. That made it only more difficult to even try and get him out of there along with not having a clue on how to do it. I decided to wait until his muscles start to break down, a process that took time. I flipped over the backpack onto my back then climbed out. I had plenty of time to think about it later during my search. 

To find a lake would most certainly be difficult, especially on a planet I was not familiar with. My best chance to find a lake would have to be around mountains with melting glaciers. If not then I hoped Lady Luck was on my side because I doubt I would find anything useful. I scanned the area around me and into the forest for anything rocky. There was a mountain nearby which was a great start already, but it did not mean that the distance from the jet to the mountain was short. I took a deep breath and exhaled, somewhat nervous to get inside the forest. Who knew what lurked in there? Besides, whatever was watching me might still be in there waiting. 

”Well, good thing I have the computer with me. At least I will have some company now.” I moved my hand to the side of my helmet and pressed on the soft patch. Transparent blue text and squares began to show up on the left side of my broken helmet screen, glitched for a moment until stabilising. Then it spoke with a soft, monotone voice. 

”Data Transfer Complete. What can I help you with?” The computer said and awaited for a reply from me. 

”Can you scan the area and create a map for me to use?” I asked and took a look around the beach while a beep was heard from the computer.

”Yes, I can. Scanning Area…” The computer went silent. I was not going to bother it so I jumped down from the roof of the plane and walked up to the shore. The wind was strong and it was pleasant to feel it on my face. The ocean was a clear turquoise with strong waves crashing on the rocks submerged in water. Some of the smaller waves reached to my boots and splashed on them. 

The last time I went to the beach was younger me with my family, long before the wars occured and pretty much ruined everything. Good memories flooded back to my mind and I could not help but to smile a little to myself. I missed it. I missed being with my family. I missed Earth, the healthy Earth. Why was I here again? Right, because fucking Hyperion Corp. are desperate for another Earth-like planet for us to inhabit. I was _ standing _ on the surface of an Earth-like planet, but I cannot forward the message. There was no way for me to forward it. The equipment was not working which I tested myself. Even if it did work, I didn't think they would care to answer me or even hear me at all. 

”Scanning Complete. Generating Map…” the computer beeped and my attention shifted to the forest behind me. The map was generated on a small transparent square projected on my helmet screen and I had a look at it. 

The map showed where I was currently standing on the long beach and a large bit of the forest, which stretched quite far across the land until slowly becoming grasslands. I spotted a small water source located around 5 km north west and a larger lake near the mountain. The smaller lake would be enough water for me, though only if it was drinkable. 

”Thank you… um… what are you even called?” I asked the computer and heard a small beep in response.

”My name is Star. Nice to meet you, Lex.” I blinked, confused at how the computer- Star knew my name without me ever mentioning it. 

”How did you know my name?” 

”Your names are registered in my system.” Star beeped, its voice glitching out in some words before sounding normal again. ”You are H.S.E Peregrine’s co-pilot, Lex Russell.” 

I nodded. Star eventually went silent and I figured it was time to find the lake. I stepped inside the forest and looked at the map, which had a pointer that moved at the same time I did. Perfect, all I had to do now was not go the wrong way. I pushed through some large bushes in my way and was met with large trees casting wide, and cool shadows on the ground. The temperature here was definitely lower but it also felt a bit humid, indicating that it was warmer further in. I adjusted the backpack, clipped the straps around my waist tightly and began trekking to the lake. 

* * *

”How much left?” 

”4,5 km left. You are nearing a steep hill, be careful.” 

Ew, steep hills are the _ worst _. I grunted in annoyance and kept on walking. It has not been long since I left the jet, probably 10 minutes, but I already wanted to go back since that was the only place I really felt safe. Being out here by myself with only a computer as companion did not help me feel better at all. At times I would hear a noise coming from the bushes and the large leaves above moved from a small critter jumping around up there. It meant that there are living creatures on this planet and I had no idea if they were friendly or dangerous. I tried my best to stay quiet and make as little noise as possible to not attract the attention of potentially dangerous creatures and hide from whatever was following me. 

There was not much vegetation growing on the ground and instead there were dead leaves and other material that were slowly rotting away. Because of that, it was difficult to not make any loud noises but I worked my way through the crunchy ground. As I stepped on more leaves, my foot dug inside a patch of them and something let out a loud crack. I paused my walking and stood absolutely still, in fear of hearing any other noise in response to the crack. I suppose my luck was napping somewhere because I heard slow, heavy footsteps coming from one side towards me. _ Fuck!. _

I could see a large frame of a creature walking up to me but I did not dare to move my head or any of my limbs to accidentally startle it. It was definitely quadrupedal and was much larger than me, probably around the size of a large horse. It reached up to me, paused its movements and did not move for a long while which was dreadfully painful_._

Then I felt tickling my face and glanced over a bit to see that it had leaned over to sniff me, along with its whiskers tracing across my cheek. I could finally see its face. Long, lizard-like head with whiskers around its snout and small beady eyes. It had large plates starting from the back of its head down the back, with long spines protruding out from the scales. The creature then licked my face and I was pushed back a bit from the sudden force. I moved my hand to wipe away the saliva and looked up at it. It tilted its head in curiosity and I could not help but to smile a little. It was oddly cute?

”Hey there, have you been the scary monster following me around these 2 days?” I asked in a low voice and reached out my hand to let it sniff. 

It almost made sense that it would have observed me since the crash but for _that_ long? I knew animals have some patience before moving on from lost interest but not for two whole days. This one must have been nearby when it heard me walk around the forest, which meant that my stalker was still around and watching. It moved its head down to smell on my hand and gave a few soft licks. I was hesitant at first, of course it was the first time I have seen an alien, let alone a close-up view of one! And it was scary as hell because who knew what it could do? I could be very much dead for the next few seconds but... my dumb human brain fell for the cuteness. 

I carefully began patting it on the snout when it seemed calm enough about me moving around. Its frontal lips were rough but then softened as my fingers reached the whiskers. It was watching me in curiosity, probably thinking the same as I did. _ What a strange creature. _ I moved my hand further up and gave it a few small pats before stopping. It stared for a moment before shifting its head down to lean against my chest and I staggered back once again from the force. I laughed in nervousness and proceeded to scratch it around the neck where I could see it close its eyes and let out a low, rumbling noise. _ That’s the right spot _, I thought and smiled to myself as I continued to scratch it. 

”Aw, do you enjoy it? Want some more?” I said with a playful voice and scratched around the scales. Maybe a bit too close. I pricked my finger on one of the spines that had rested against its skin and quickly retracted my hand, hissing in pain. I saw that it had made a hole through my glove and to my finger which was bleeding. The creature went to sniff my finger and I sighed. That's really sharp.

”Well, I guess I will stay away from touching your scales. Those are some very sharp spines you got. For protection?” I asked it as it let out a soft noise in response and I chuckled. This was dumb, talking to an alien which definitely didn't understand a word of what you said. Somehow, I enjoyed it. It felt nice to have some company. Other than a computer. 

I reached around the backpack to take out a water bottle with my good hand, opened it up to pour it over my finger and clean it. Better not get an infection from a simple injury on the finger. 

”Now for the band-aid.” I mumbled and proceeded to reach over my bag to find the small pack of band-aid while the creature had sat down on the ground to watch me. I smiled at it for a second and then shifted my focus to pulling out the package from a pocket. Now the challenge was to put it around my finger. I would have to take off my glove and my main suit for this. Ugh.

I took off the glove and examined the size of the hole in my suit. It was big enough to expose a bit of my skin but could be easily covered with the band-aid, without needing to cut a bigger hole. I shrugged and wrapped the band-aid over my finger and then reattached my glove. The insulation will not be as good anymore, considering the helmet has a giant opening on one side and now my glove has a hole on it too. However, the sublayer should be good enough to stay warm, according to the manufacturers of the suit. I would prefer to have upper layer on since it does not show off much of my body but I knew myself it will not stay like that for long. It cannot handle every environment on existence. 

I looked at the scaled thing again as it did the same to me.

”I would love to stay here and pat you more but I have to leave now. Gotta find some water.” I said loudly and it replied with a small noise. I smiled again and patted it on its snout before moving on. The map showed up again on my screen and continued to walk the same direction towards the lake.

I glanced back to see if the alien was still looking at me, but was met with the alien following right behind me. A startled noise escaped my mouth and I jumped from the sudden close-up view. It didn’t react to my movements and kept on following after me. 

”I... suppose you will be my travel companion now, yes?” 

”Mrro!” 

I could only form a very pleased grin and trekked on towards the lake, with two travel companions now. 

* * *

It was starting to get very humid and hot. In fact, I have been sweating for the past one hour of walking. My sub layered suit is good at insulation and exposure but with the upper layer suit in the way, it’s getting unbearably hot and heavy. Star has glitched on and off several times informing me of things I didn't care about as I couldn't be bothered to speak to them. I, instead, drank from the water bottle in hand to cool myself down for a bit and paused my walking. Needle, as I’ve named the scaly creature, was not too bothered by the heat or the humidity and simply sat down next to me. 

”You are used to this climate, aren’t you?” I asked Needle and got random noise as response. I sighed, not sure what to do next as I didn’t want to continue my walking like this. The lake was not too far away now and if I continued on at this pace, I will reach it in 30 minutes. _But I need a break._

”God, this was not expected.” I took another sip from the water bottle. ”Star, what temperature is it now?” 

”It is 35 degrees Celsius. Humidity 100%.”

”_What!? _” I looked at the screen in shock as the numbers showed up and groaned. This will be a pain in the ass to deal with. ”Do you think the temperature will lower itself at night?” I asked Star and felt Needle lick on my face. Probably an attempt on cooling me down?

”It will be cooler at night.” It replied with the same monotone voice and I moved my hand to my face to wipe away the saliva and sweat. The sky was changing colours which meant that the sun will set in a few hours. Now I had to decide on what to do; stay under a shadow until it’s dark, or continue on. I glanced to Needle who yawned and rested its head on on the ground. I gave Needle a soft smile and patted its head. Even aliens needed a nap sometimes, it must be universal. It also looked _ very _comfortable to just rest here for a while. My eyelids grew heavy from seeing Needle sleeping soundly and decided to place my backpack on the ground next to me. Then I leaned my head against their side and watched the trees above. I didn’t want to nap yet, even though I was quite tired from being active since morning, mainly because night was approaching soon.

I drank from the water bottle until it was emptied and put it back in my backpack. My arms rested behind my head and I listened to the noises around us. There was a lot more life in this section of the forest; rustling sounds, small taps, animal noises.. it only continued. It was nice to actually hear _ something _ for once and not only the sounds of crashing waves. My mind wandered to Thomas and what he would think of this planet if he was still alive. My eyebrows furrowed. This wasn't the right time to think about him, I had to find resources first. 

My stomach suddenly growled angrily, loud enough for me to hear and for Needle to open an eye to glance at me. My hand reached over my stomach and I sighed. I suppose the jerky had done its job and now have room for, hopefully, tastier food. My backpack was flipped over to the side and I zipped open one pocket to dig through the food I had collected from the jet. I randomly selected a pack and saw that it was chicken curry. Bingo!

I placed the package down on the ground and pulled out a decently sized cylindrical, metallic cooking equipment and two bottles of water. Out of a smaller pocket on the side of the backpack there was a lighter, which I set down next to me on the ground. I opened up the metallic cylinder and rearranged the parts that came with the set. The small saucepan was placed above the portable stove and I grabbed one water bottle to pour it in. Then I took the lighter and lit the stove. 

”Now I wait for it to boil.” I said to myself, a little proud that I still remembered how to use this equipment. Camping’s pretty fun, especially with people around. Well, if you considered Needle as a person, I guess. I watched Needle as it was sleeping again, the nostrils opening and closing with every breath, and resting its head on one front leg and the rest of the body leaning on the ground. It looked like a large dog… or cat?. That kind of reminded me of my own cat. _Oh, I wish my cat was here so I could cuddle her and get my arms clawed at._ I wondered how she was doing now and if my relatives are taking good care of her. If I had some kind of way to contact them, I would've known what was going on but the connection from here to Earth was severely poor. The comms. got destroyed from the crash anyway, which was infuriating. 

Before I could grow any more upset at memories and this situation, I tried distracting myself by checking on the stove and water to make sure it was not boiling over or that the stove was malfunctioning. Luckily, none of that happened and it was starting to build up bubbles at the bottom of the saucepan. It would probably take another short while before it starts boiling. 

I leaned back over on Needle, carefully to not press on its spines, and rummaged through my backpack to check that everything I packed down was still there. I didn’t need to do it at all since I already knew that everything was in place but... doing nothing only made me think of home. A small grunt from Needle was heard and the sound of shuffling as it has moved to the opposite side and laid flat on the ground. I almost fell over on my back if I didn’t catch my balance with my hands and slowly shook my head at Needle.

“You are so strange, Needle.” 

Needle was sleeping soundly and I went back to my backpack to zip it shut and checked on the stove again. It was now boiling and I smiled, pleased at how well it was going so far. I would have to wait for another short while before shutting it off, so I went up to stretch and walk around to waste my time. There was nothing else to do here after all.

Except…

“Hey, Star. I’m curious about something.” I spoke to the idle computer that made a beeping noise before showing up on the screen. With the same monotone voice, they said;

“What is it you are curious about? I may be able to answer.” 

“This might be a strange question to a computer but… are you sentient? Like, conscious about your surroundings and what you are?” I asked and waited for a reply. It only took a few seconds of silence, maybe processing the question, before they answered.

“I am programmed to be a guide to explorers like you, scan, analyse and identify life and materials for further studies and much more. I am aware of my surroundings and people I am helping, as well as what I actually am.” Their voice glitched a bit at the end of the sentence. “I would be considered to be sentient but I do not have free will.” 

"What do you mean by that?"

"I am limited with what I have been coded to do. I haven't been coded to think for myself, feel emotions or form opinions. I can only observe and assist." 

“I...see.” 

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, as it wasn’t what I expected to hear from a computer. They were weirdly aware on the fact that they aren’t programmed to do anything they pleased, only to help us on our missions. Was it creepy? No, not really. I almost felt bad for Star but they didn’t sound very bothered that they didn’t have free will. I doubt they had anything that would be close to resembling feelings or emotions anyway. Having a sentient computer with emotions as a guide would be quite troublesome. 

It fell silent for a while and the only thing making sound was the stove and Needle’s snoring. After seeing that Star went idle, I checked on the saucepan and shut it off. My hand grabbed the handle and moved over to the package as I carefully poured the warm water into the bag. Then I closed the bag and placed the saucepan back on the stove. My stomach growled loudly again. 

“Yeah, yeah, soon.” I grumbled to myself, annoyed at my own body being impatient and crouched over the bag to wait until it had heated up completely. The package said to wait 10 minutes for it to heat up. These were the _ slowest _10 minutes ever . I was too hungry to distract myself from it, instead I just watched the clock tick by on the side of the screen. I felt sweat run down my forehead and noticed how sticky my body got from all the sweating. It didn't feel pleasant at all and I knew I would need a shower to wash it away. Somehow_. _A few thumps were heard coming up from behind me and I glanced back to see that Needle had woken up and moved slowly towards me. 

“Hey, bud. Slept good?” I laughed, while receiving a face lick and patted it on the nose. Needle exhaled a noise and sniffed me around, and to the bag in front of me. I decided to observe Needle’s behaviour instead of torturing myself. One thing that I’ve noticed was that Needle smelled its environment a lot. Was that its way of tracking? Or did it identify things by smelling them? Perhaps it was just curious. I was definitely not an expert on animal behaviour, especially alien behaviour. 

Needle moved one front leg closer to the bag and I noticed a strange 'claw' on its foot. It was curved and long, longer than my hand in fact, and it looked more like a spur than a claw. I wondered what it was for. Its toes were flattened and hoof shaped, though seemed to form some kind of a paw. The more I observed Needle, the more I am realizing how _ weird _ it looked. It was like someone took a lizard, pangolin and a deer, and shoved them all together to form… this. Needle had pushed over the bag and I quickly got up to take the bag away from it so it wouldn’t accidentally spill out the contents. 

“Don’t do that!” 

My sudden movement and the loud noise had startled Needle, who raised its spines high and bared its teeth as it hissed at me. Its teeth were terrifyingly sharp and felt myself move back a step.I carefully raised my hands up to show my palms and lowered my voice, not doing any other sudden movement to make it worse. _I wouldn’t want to get bitten by it._

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice at you.” I spoke softly to Needle as it lowered its spines and closed its mouth, licking itself around the lips and watched me. My foot moved forward, slowly as to not startle it again, until I reached up to it and put my hands around the head. “I bet you are hungry too, right?” I asked it as it grunted in response and blew out air to my face. I let go of Needle’s face and turned around to grab the bag from the ground. Then I pulled out a small blanket from the backpack, placed it on a comfortable spot and sat down. Needle followed my movements and sat down on the blanket as well, watching me open up the bag and pushing out a good amount of food onto the blanket in front of it with a spoon. I looked up at it and smiled, gesturing towards the food as a signal for it to eat up. 

“Go ahead.” 

Needle smelled the food for a moment before eating it up and I turned to my portion and began eating as well. It felt _ so good _ to finally have some food in my stomach!

Suddenly, Star bleeped on and informed me about the time, which made me look up at the sky. It was getting quite colourful, so it wasn’t long until the sun would set. That meant that I’ve got to eat up before moving on in the dark. 

I wasn’t sure what creatures lurked in there. There were the noises I’ve heard around the jet but I never got to see what it was because I was close to shitting myself. It wasn’t fun dealing with noises at night, especially when you don’t have natural night-vision. _ I hope the stalker will get bored of me eventually _ , I thought and shoved a spoonful of food into my mouth, growing somewhat nervous again about this whole thing. A part of me screamed to leave and that I was an idiot for venturing out at all. It was too late to return now when I was so close to the goal anyway. 

Needle made a chirp-like noise at me that caught my attention. It had finished up the portion pretty quickly while I was still going at it with mine. I squinted at Needle and smirked. 

“I knew you were hungry. But you are not getting the rest, I am hungry too, y’know.” I explained while receiving a few, what I would think are, ‘whines’ from Needle. 

It was difficult to not give Needle more food but I eventually caved in when I had some food left and poured it out on the blanket. The food was immediately devoured and I chuckled at the excitement. When it had licked up every last trace of the meal, I packed away the blanket and the metallic cylinder with the portable stove. I looked up one last time at the sky and saw more colours blending with the clouds, with some stars glowing brightly already. It was close to getting dark. 

“Time to move, Needle.” I began walking and woke up Star from their 'nap' to show me the map. Star was right, the temperature indeed got much lower but colder than I had expected. Thanks to my suit, I didn’t need to worry much about it. All I had to worry about was to navigate through the dark. I pressed on the side of my helmet to active the flashlights to help me not fall from things. 

Needle stayed close to my side as we continued on further into the forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have tried to finish this earlier but uni is not making it possible, so I have been taking my free time to write properly. :)  
Enjoy chapter 2!


	3. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Argathi sheet: https://www.deviantart.com/132364/art/Argathi-817017838

It’s incredible how fast it turns dark. One second you still have some light from the sun and the next, the moons are peeking out, making them your only light source. And yes, there are three moons orbiting the planet but they are quite small as it seems. The one moon closest to the planet would definitely make some changes to the tides, while the second and third moons looked unstable. By unstable I meant that they might crash into each other one day or they will just drift off into space, from knocking each other out of their course. I had to admit, it looked very strange to see a moon orbit another moon, but it wasn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen so far. 

We had walked through the final bit of the route through the forest and I was feeling quite uneasy that whole trip. It felt like eyes hidden in the dark were staring right through me, and it didn’t help when there were alien noises coming from every corner around us. Needle wasn’t bothered by it, because _ of course it wouldn’t be _, and had stayed close to my side the whole time. I felt much safer that way and I was happy to have its company with me. 

The lake eventually showed up in my view and could finally mark it off as completed with the help of Star. I quietly walked up to the lake and tried to check if the water was shallow or not. The moon was directly above us so I expected to be able to see the bottom of the lake but there was only a small bit of the lake floor that could be seen, and the rest darkened, showing that it was deeper. That way I couldn’t see what was swimming in there but I had to worry about that afterwards, as filling up the empty water bottles was my first priority. 

With the help of the flashlights, I could scan the area for anything long to poke around in the water as I didn’t want to dip my feet in there. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the ground that could work as a stick and I was too short to reach the closest branch to climb up on the trees. Thomas’ taunting voice of calling me ’shorty’ echoed in my head as I grumbled in annoyance and turned around to look at Needle, who was drinking from the lake. 

”Is that water safe to drink, Needle?” Of course it is, Needle is drinking from it, idiot_. _ But what if it was safe for Needle and not for _ me _?

Needle lifted its head up from the water and licked its lips before turning to look at me. From what I could see, Needle was fine and didn’t seem to behave any differently but… I would have to make sure it’s safe for me to drink as well. And a little bit of help from a computer. 

“Hey, Star, can you analyse water samples and tell if it’s safe or not?” I asked out loud as Star made a soft rumbling noise in my ear. 

“Yes.” They said, as monotone and bored as ever. Couldn’t they have programmed Star to sound a bit more cheerful? 

“Oookay, how do I show you the sample?” 

“Put a drop of it in the slot and I will analyse it.” 

A small slot emerged from the left arm of my suit, big enough for liquids to be placed on the circular plate and then examined. I had no idea of this function of my suit and neither did I know that Star could control my suit, which they didn’t mention at all. I exhaled a breath into the cold air and walked up to the lake, not caring about my exposed face getting numb, and bent over to stare at the surface. There was still nothing moving around in the water so I extended my arm out to dip my good finger in and let a droplet fall onto the small plate. It immediately went back in and a small screen appeared on my helmet;

[Sample Analysing…] 

“I don’t think you mentioned anything about this, Star. Care to explain?” 

“By mentioning ‘analyse’, I thought it would be expected to know what I meant.” While they had no emotion in their voice, I knew it was supposed to be sarcastic. It bugged me enough to wanting to snap back but instead I forced a smile and nodded. Arguing with a computer seemed ridiculous. 

“Yes, but I didn’t expect you to be able to control parts of the suit. You said nothing about that.” I replied to Star and watched the bar on the screen load. There was a moment of Star making choppy, broken sentences and noises from the amount of glitching before I could comprehend what they were saying. 

“That information was not important at the time-” Star interrupted themselves with another sound. “-control the suit effectively by transferring my system to the suit.” The amount of noises Star had made was getting worse by each time I was talking to them. 

“Are you okay? Your sentences are really choppy.” I asked the computer with some concern in my voice. It would be really bad if it was a problem I couldn’t be able to fix or control as I really needed Star for the assistance. 

“The crash had damaged parts- communication system damage.”

“Is… there something I can do?” I’ve fixed computers before but wasn’t sure if I could fix advanced computers like Star. Maybe they could give me instructions on how to fix the problem? 

“No.” They flatly refused and fell silent immediately after that. 

I blinked, shocked at the strange behaviour and abrupt refusal from Star and opened my mouth to blurt out a confused response.

“No?? Why not?”

Star didn’t respond. I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. If that’s what it’s like dealing with a stubborn robot, then I was already losing my patience. Moving my hand from my eyes, I returned to look at the bar and saw that it completed the analysis and showed me the results. Looking through the numbers there was a text at the bottom saying; ‘Water contaminated but drinkable.’ and let out a sigh of relief. The water would be safe to drink after boiling and that was good enough for me. 

The two empty water bottles were quickly filled up and I could see sediment slowly falling to the bottom of the bottles. It was definitely contaminated but didn’t bother me much as I had plenty of bottles in my backpack for drinking. The bottles were put back inside and I shifted my eyes to the transparent blue square that popped up. ’Be aware of your surroundings’, it said ominously. My surroundings? I decided to stop moving for a moment to listen closely. There was nothing to be heard around us, only the movements of leaves flowing from the winds and Needle’s footsteps coming towards my direction. I waited for a long moment before shaking my head. Why scare me up like that?

I turned around to glance at Needle and we both exchanged unamused looks.

Then, a rustle from the bushes.

Needle immediately perked its head up at the noise and I got up from my crouched position and placed my hand on the gun strapped around my leg. My body leaned against Needle’s tensed up muscles and we both went quiet. My heart was pounding on my chest, terrified at what could be moving among the bushes. What if it was my stalker? The bushes in front of us moved again and we positioned ourselves to meet whatever was hiding in there, but another rustle came from other bushes. Then another one, and another. They were coming from every direction. 

”This isn’t good.” I gritted my teeth and heard Needle growl lowly next to me as it had extended its spines and moved closer to my side. I wasn’t sure what was happening but if it made Needle this threatened then it’s _ definitely _ bad. The rustling around us got louder and louder until I heard several clicking noises and growls coming from the bushes. Oh no.

Needle hissed and screeched at the creatures emerging from the bushes and I pointed the gun at them while covering one ear from the loud sounds. These creatures were smaller but more muscular than Needle and could definitely have me and Needle for dinner. 

One of them seemed very focused on me and I instinctively grabbed onto one spine on Needle’s back and pulled myself up. That predator charged towards me and Needle reacted fast enough to land a kick on the rib. It yelped in pain and landed on its side. The others began charging at us in response as Needle hopped over them and ran off in the opposite direction from where we had come from. I held on to dear life with the help of the spines and turned my head to see with the flashlight, that they all are running after us and are catching up, _ fast _.

”Needle, watch out!” I yelled out as one of them had jumped and latched onto Needle’s thigh with its large paws, attempting to slow Needle down by dragging them down. However, Needle managed to kick it off with enough squirming and continued running with incredible speed. 

I could still hear they were following us but the amount of thumps decreased and I glanced back, just in time to see that one was approaching me in the air. I screamed in shock and felt myself getting pushed off Needle’s back and landed hard on my side. That fucker _ pounced me _! 

A soft groan escaped my mouth as I carefully sat up and held my helmet, watching the rest of the screen falling off. Landing on your head with your helmet on is great protection but my head injury didn’t completely heal yet and I didn’t want it to bleed again. There was no time for checking on my wound though as the predator that pounced me was a few feet away from me, growling with an open mouth and watching. The rows of shark-like teeth were showing from the flashlight and its intense dark eyes observing my movements, waiting for an opportunity to attack me. I was sweating even more than before and panting heavily from the adrenaline still pumping through my body. My hand reached for the gun but only grabbed on my thigh. Fuck I’ve dropped it. 

I clenched my jaw, darting my eyes around to look for where my gun had landed while keeping the hungry bastard in front of me. It was nowhere to be seen. Slowly, I rose from the ground and watched the creature ready itself. I couldn’t run away as my backpack was making me heavier and an easier meal to catch. There was no way to defend myself either. The predator moved back and then launched itself in a long leap at me with its mouth open. I immediately cowered and shut my eyes tight in fear, waiting for the sudden pain or sound of tearing flesh to be heard. But… all that I heard was a yelp, then an impact against a tree and the rustles of bushes.

I opened one eye to see that the predator was running off in fear from... something else attacking it? I checked my surroundings and saw that nothing- nobody else was there. I pushed myself up from the ground and patted away the dirt from my knees and elbows. As I worked on my elbows, I noticed a familiar shape conveniently placed on the ground next to me. 

”What the hell?” I mumbled and picked up my weapon from the ground. It wasn’t there when I looked before. Perhaps I’ve missed it? No, I was sure I checked on that same spot. Then who the hell placed it here?

”Is somebody here?” I asked out loud while concentrating on hearing any sudden noises. ”This isn’t funny. Whoever is fucking around and have been stalking me this whole time, show yourself!” My tone had changed from confusion to anger. I didn’t want to deal with more alien bullshit and stalkers, I only wanted answers. 

After a moment of nothing reacting to me, I sighed and strapped my gun pack to my thigh. This was stupid. 

At the same time, I could hear Needle approaching me and I felt relieved that Needle was alright. Needle had blood splattered on its front body, coming from its mouth. I hurriedly ran up to Needle and patted its nose to comfort it from the stress it had experienced. I received a lick on across my face and I snorted. 

”We should move on, this is not safe.” I spoke to Needle, who blinked at me. ”I’ll check on you when we are safe, at least you can walk properly.” I continued and turned around to take a path but paused. I had no idea where we were. There were only trees towering over us and showing no real path that lead anywhere. I tapped on the side of my helmet to summon Star but I got no response. 

”Star? Can you hear me?” I tapped again and got nothing. ”Star! Are you okay? Please, answer me, I need your help!” Nothing. 

My breathing had increased from stress and I walked around in circles, wondering what to do and how to get back on the path we were on. Needle was just sitting on the ground, not worried about anything. It probably wondered what the hell I was even doing. I let out a frustrated noise as I sat down on the ground and covered my face. This was a very bad idea. I should’ve stayed. _ I should’ve stayed _. 

”You are such an idiot, Lex! You never use your head or think about the consequences. Fucking idiot!” I yelled out into the night, not caring if something heard me. I’ve had enough of this. I wished this was a fever dream and that I could wake up on my bed back on Earth and be with my friends and family again. 

’_ Why are you always calling yourself these awful things?’ _A voice rumbled in my head and I perked my head up in shock as I took a look around us. There was nobody around, except for Needle and I. 

”Did you… hear that, Needle?” I got nervous and crawled over to sit next to Needle. It felt much safer to be with Needle than sitting by myself. Needle looked really calm and replied with a soft noise. ”Probably not…”

’_ Nabir doesn’t hear me. I am only linked to your mind. _’ The voice was heard again in my head and gripped around my helmet. With my injury, it hurt like hell to hear that voice echoing. What if I’m only hallucinating? 

”Great, now I hear voices. I can’t believe I am losing it this quickly.” I laughed and leaned on Needle’s side. ”I need a fucking break.” 

’_ You are not hallucinating. _’

”Oh shut-”

My sentence was cut short as I had fixed my eyes into someone else’s pair of eyes visibly showing among the dark background. They were fiery in colour and glowing brightly. The voice echoed again.

’_ You are not hallucinating, this is how I can communicate with you. _’ The mysterious person’s eyes squinted and the glow dimmed as they slowly emerged from the dark. My mouth was agape in surprise and I couldn’t form any words as the tall creature had fully emerged and was just standing there. It was humanoid in form but was clearly an alien. It had a large head shaped like a dome with flattened horn-like structures and a long tail. Its body was covered in… Was it wearing clothes?

I moved closer to Needle, not sure what to do or say in this weird situation. As soon as the humanoid creature began walking towards us though, I swiftly pulled out my gun and pointed it at the alien. 

”Stay back.” 

’_ I won’t hurt you. _’ 

The voice was calm and the alien paused its movements. I couldn’t see if it was focusing on me or the gun as there were no pupils to be seen. I gripped the gun harder and gritted my teeth. It noticed I was not going to trust easily. 

’_ I am not here to capture you or do anything harmful to you, if that is what you are thinking. _’

”Well, it doesn’t help that you have been stalking me this whole time, huh?”

It squinted its eyes again and nodded. 

’_ Indeed. However, I believe you wouldn’t have reacted well if I showed myself earlier. Besides, I had to make sure you weren’t a threat either. _'

I only stared at the alien, not saying anything else. 

’_ To make sure I sent out Nabir to test you. As far as I can see, Nabir trusts you. _’ 

”Wait, Nabir?” I lowered my gun and quirked an eyebrow. The alien moved its head slightly towards Needle’s direction and I followed it. Needle yawned and began scratching itself on the neck. I pointed at Needle and returned my attention to the humanoid. ”That’s their name?”

The alien nodded and casually walked up to Nabir and scratched their neck. Nabir gave a few licks to the alien and I could see a small smile forming on their face. I held down the gun to my side. 

’_ Yes, her name is Nabir and she is my companion. I gave her the task to observe you and your behaviour and she seems to really like you. I trust her decision to trust you. _’ 

”I… uh… I guess Needle was a bad name.” I mumbled to myself and avoided eye contact with the alien. I put away my gun and turned to face them again when I spotted my shotgun strapped to their back. 

”Hey, that’s my shotgun! How did you get it?” 

’_ I thought you might need it. As you said it yourself before leaving. _’

Since when did I say that? 

”What?”

”_ Ah, I apologize, you were thinking it. _’

”Wha- Have you been reading my mind?!”

It paused for a moment, seemingly perplexed at how I reacted to the fact that this stranger had read my mind this whole time. 

’_ That’s how we gather information and communicate.. _’

God dammit. I rubbed my temples and crouched down again. This was a lot of events happening at once and it was giving me a headache as I haven’t had time to process anything well enough. _ I have to return to bury Thomas too, _I thought and sucked in a deep breath. 

’_ Your deceased friend has been buried in a nice spot. You don’t have to worry about it any longer. _’

”Excuse me?” I glanced up to the alien who had stopped giving scratches to Nabir and simply stood by her. 

’_ As you left, I went inside your jet, as you call it, and saw your friend’s body. To save your time and energy, I buried him for you. _’

How were they so darn calm? It almost made me want to believe them but I wasn’t sure what to feel or think about this. 

”How do I know you are not lying?” I asked with a stern tone and observed the alien closing its eyes for a moment. 

’_ I can show you my memories. If that is how I can make you trust me then close your eyes. _’ 

Was it worth it watching my friend’s corpse getting pried out from the jet and buried? No, I wasn’t ready to see that. Actually, I didn’t even want to see him right now. Not like that, not yet… I looked down at my feet and kicked away a loose rock. The alien didn’t do anything to hint at them wanting to harm me, even if it was creepy that they had stalked me this whole time. Besides, Nabir was not acting aggressively at all, not like she did with those shark-toothed creatures. 

”You don’t have to...” 

’_ Does that mean you trust me? _’ 

”No. You are a stranger to me and I haven’t exactly had a great time here so far with aliens. Except for Nabir.” 

”Mroo!” 

The alien sighed and was silent for a moment before taking a step forward to face me directly and clasped their hands behind their back. Under the moonlight I could see details a lot better such as the outlines of their face and the nice clothes they wore. Their clothes were mahogany coloured, decorated with interesting orange gold swirling patterns on their chest. The clothing went all the way down to to their thighs and their waist had a long piece of cloth tied around it with the same orange-gold colour. They were also wearing darker coloured shorts underneath but it was mostly covered by the clothing itself. Their skin was black and didn’t seem to have hair or fur on their body, though they looked more reptilian even if there were no scales to be seen. 

’_ I suppose I will start with an introduction. _’ The alien suddenly spoke which forced me to pay attention to their eyes rather than their clothes. 

’_ My name is Daavit. I am a Terrondan Taurian and the King’s stealth expert. I was sent by the King to observe a strange object falling through our atmosphere, which turned out to be your jet.’ _

I listened while staring intently at Daavit’s face. His eyes were glowing softly in the dark, the moon absorbing most of the light. 

’_ I found you passed out and bleeding inside the jet, so I tended to your wounds with the equipment your jet had already. The King told me to stay hidden and observe you instead of revealing myself. The strange things happening were me trying to help you out. _’ 

I blinked.

”Did you save me from those... land-sharks?” 

He nodded as I scratched on my cheek and pursed my lips. 

”But how? I never saw you or heard you move at all.” 

’_ Telekinesis. _’

Was he serious? Telekinesis? 

’_ Yes I am serious. _’

”Stop reading my mind!” 

Daavit gave me that same perplexed look he had before. It looked like he was thinking of what to respond to my comments. 

’_ I apologize but… do you not communicate telepathically? _’

”Obviously as I am speaking to you verbally. Humans don’t have that power and it’s very rude to invade someone’s thoughts without permission!” I folded my arms and watched him widen his eyes in realization.

’_ Oh, I’m so sorry, I did not mean to offend you! _’ He had raised his hands up and gave me an apologetic expression at which I chuckled and shook my head.

”It’s alright, you didn’t know. It’s just that I would rather speak verbally and keep my privacy.” My mouth formed a small smile and Daavit seemed to relax a bit. ”Besides, I have a headache and the echoing inside my brain is not helping.” 

He rested his fingers against his lips and was silent for a moment. I assumed he was thinking again and waited patiently to see what he would do next. His dark lips suddenly parted and opened his mouth. 

”Is this better?” He said verbally this time and no echoes were appearing inside my head anymore. 

”Oh yeah, definitely! But, I forgot to ask, how do you even know English?” 

”I don’t. I am simply using my powers to translate everything. Not everyone knows how to do it and they won’t understand if you tried speaking with them unless I activate it.” He explained and I mouthed an ’Oh’ in disappointment. He noticed it and smiled softly as he reached out to pat me on the shoulder. 

”I might learn some words if I keep translating like this.” He assured me and let go of my shoulder a few seconds after. It was cool that he could translate like this but that meant I wouldn’t be able to understand a word of _ their _ language. They communicate telepathically anyway, how would I even be able to _ hear _ the language? 

We stood there in silence, both not saying anything or knowing how what to say to initiate another conversation. Daavit folded his arms and shut his eyes. 

”Well…” Daavit began, reopening his eyes and scanned me thoughtfully. ”Perhaps you should introduce yourself this time?” 

”A..Ah, yeah, I should. It’s rude not to.” I stammered and rubbed the back of my helmet nervously. ”The name’s Lex. I’m a human pilot and an astronaut.” I hated introducing myself to others. It was always awkward and I was not even remotely as interesting as Daavit or anyone else I knew. Despite that, Daavit was listening closely to what I had to say about myself. I began sweating when I wasn’t sure what to even tell him next.

”Uhm… I have a cat? Her name is Tara. She is lovely and likes to scratch my hands sometimes.” 

”A cat?” Daavit asked curiously.

”It’s an animal that’s like a companion. Like Nabir.” I tried to explain by comparing with Nabir, who was standing beside Daavit and smelling the air. 

”I see. That’s quite interesting. I also like your name, it has a nice tone. Lex.” He repeated my name and I gave a short chuckle. I guess I’m not as boring as I thought. At least to an alien. 

”Thank you, Daavit. Your name is nice as well.” We smiled at each other. Daavit seemed quite nice so far.

Then he looked up at the sky, the moon now hiding behind clouds, as a gust of wind passed by us. I didn’t feel much of the wind because of the suit but some of it managed to get inside the suit due to the larger hole on my helmet. I took a deep breath from the fresh air and exhaled. It felt great to breathe in non-polluted air for once. The smell from the pollution back on Earth was something to get used to but, I had to admit, I never got used to it. I can never get used to it. 

”I do not think we should stay here.” Daavit spoke up while still watching the dark sky above us. ”It’s much safer at Terronda.” 

”Terronda?” I’ve heard him mention that word before but I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. His gaze shifted from the sky to face me as he squinted, enough for his eyes to appear as horizontal slits, with the fiery glow dimming once again. I had a lot of things to ask Daavit, especially about his people, but I figured I would take it easy and not bombard him with too many questions. 

“Terronda is one of the two cities here, the other being Vulban. We, Terrondans, live there close to the mountains. It is a very lovely place, I am sure you would like the view.” He explained as he turned his back on me. 

Nabir got up from her sitting position and trotted over to Daavit. I forced my legs to jog after the two aliens casually wandering away in one direction. I didn’t want to be left behind in this forest, not while those ‘sharks’ were still around. I slowed down to match their speed and squeezed myself in to walk between Nabir and Daavit.

“So, are we on our way there?” I asked while stiftling a yawn. My lack of sleep was starting to get to me but I couldn’t rest yet so I shook my head to keep myself awake. 

“Yes. However, it is too far to walk all the way, especially for you but I think I have a solution for that.” 

“How?” I craned my neck upwards at the tall alien. He was quiet. It was really difficult to read his facial expressions as he mostly looked blank whenever in thought or doing anything else. I wasn’t sure if that’s an effect from his people communicating mentally or if that’s what he looked normally. 

“I have another companion that could take us all the way to the city. All we have to do is wait for it at the edge of the forest.” Did he call to that companion telepathically?

“Why there? Isn’t it better to wait for them here?” I pointed at the ground we were walking on and watched him shake his head. 

“They are too big to land here. An open field would be more ideal, which is where we are heading to at the moment.” He gave me a small smile with the response. I returned the smile and sighed to myself, staring ahead into the darkness in front of us. I wish Star would respond to me so I could see the darn map and know where we were at the moment. 

I warm tongue traveled across my face along with saliva sticking to me, making my head turn from the source. My arm automatically reached up to wipe off the drool as I glanced at Nabir, who licked her lips and sniffed me. Assuming she wanted to be pet, I scratched her around the jawline. I felt my mouth stretch to form a grin when a satisfied ’purr’ was heard building up in her throat. 

”I didn’t expect her to be so fond of your presence.” I heard Daavit speak behind me. ”She never trusts anyone except for me.” 

I paused and glanced back at him. 

”Really?” 

He gave me a quick nod and reached his arm out to pat Nabir’s nose. She closed her eyes and continued purring- or well, rumbling. I wasn’t sure what noise she was making. 

”I was much younger when I first found her. Apparently something had killed her mother, which I suspected to be one of our people who had done this.” He sighed as he had stopped patting Nabir and only kept his hands around her nose. _ Those are some big hands _, I thought and looked down at my own hands. 

”And male Argathi don’t have the paternal instincts to care for their young as their mothers do, which meant that Nabir is an orphan.” Daavit continued as I began observing the anatomical differences between me and him. 

”And I tried to feed her but she was distrustful of me at first. It took some time for Nabir to trust me enough to help her but eventually…” His sentence trailed off unfinished. I didn’t notice until I felt his confused gaze upon me and I stopped moving. 

”What are you doing?” He asked me and I quickly moved my hand away from his and gave him an awkward smile. 

“Nothing!” 

Daavit was definitely processing what I just did, which was me comparing my hand to his because, again, I was curious about the anatomical differences. I realised a few seconds after that it must have looked _ really _ weird from his point of view and avoided eye contact immediately, as well as feeling my face heat up in embarrassment. 

“Humans are quite interesting.” I heard him say and his almost silent footsteps moving away from me. “Let’s hurry up, we are near the edge of the forest.” 

I followed right behind him in silence, so I wouldn’t have to look at him. The sounds of the wind flowing past the trees and our feet touching the ground were the only thing that could be heard for a long while. As I decided to admire Daavit’s clothes once again, my eyes landed on the shotgun that was still strapped to his back. He did say that he was going to return it to me but probably forgot about it. I decided that I would ask him about it after we reach the city, as I didn’t have a lot of space on my back right now to be carrying the shotgun. 

The moonlight above us was getting brighter with each step we took, successfully pushing the darkness away from my eyes. Daavit ducked from a low branch and with a big step, went through the bushes. I pushed myself through the bushes as I wasn’t tall enough like Daavit to do the same thing, and was met with a large grassy landscape with barely any trees and only low-growing plants. Over the horizon I could see the mountain standing proudly, exposed by the moon. There were trees to be seen in the far distance but it would take almost an hour or more to reach to that spot by foot and even more going to the city. I looked over to Daavit who had folded his arms together and closed his eyes. What was he doing? 

Carefully, I walked up to stand directly in front of him and tilted my head in curiosity. He wasn’t moving or saying anything. The wind made the loose parts of his clothes move in the direction of where the wind was headed. It almost looked like he had fallen asleep. I reached out my hand as close to his face as possible, and waved it. No reaction. _ Strange dude, _I thought and contemplated if poking his side to wake him up, would be a good idea. I didn’t need to do it as he opened his eyes and looked down at me. 

“My companion is on the way.” He informed me and I took a step back, surprised. His movements and actions are _ so _ unpredictable. 

“Oh! I see. Who is your companion?” I asked and looked up at him. 

“You will see eventually. It should be heard approaching in a moment.” He gave me a soft smile. 

I nodded, sat down on the grass and observed the sky above. It was still very dark, excluding the light emanating from the moon, meaning it would be long few hours until the sun rises. My muscles started to hurt as the adrenaline from the chase had decreased and I knew it would hurt a lot more after sleeping. I would most likely have bruises on my sides from falling as well. So much for a ‘short and easy trip’ this was. I rested my head on my knees and felt the gentle breeze blowing past my, now entirely broken, helmet screen.

Then I heard a low soft noise. My head moved away from the resting position and looked around. I picked the sound up fast and listened closely. It was melodic, almost as if someone was humming from a distance, coming closer to us. My attention shifted to Daavit who chuckled next to me. 

“You are hearing it too. It’s my companion.” He said through a smile and looked at the sky. I followed his gaze and saw a bright spot in the sky. It wasn’t a star since it was moving and increasing in size as well as the sound was growing louder but never too loud. 

Daavit stepped forward and I rose from the ground, watching the white flying creature lean its two pairs of fin-like wings forward to change direction. Then it decreased its speed and carefully landed next to Daavit with its lateral side facing us. I could see how strangely beautiful it actually was this close to me. It looked like a giant majestic dolphin with four thin wings, that could somehow levitate in the air. The head was decorated in silver markings across its bill and on the ventral side to its back, and a clearly glowing halo above its head. The whole body was also covered in scales that shine when light hit it. It was humming softly when Daavit patted it on the back and looked back to me, with my mouth agape in awe. 

“Come. You can pat him.” He gestured me to come forward and I complied. He grabbed my hand and carefully put it on the scaly skin of the creature. It hummed again, low and pleasantly. 

“These are called Angel Cloudjumpers. They are our most sacred and respected animal in Aventia and most helpful too. If you manage to bond with one, you will have a loyal friend for the rest of your life.” Daavit explained and moved his hand across the Cloudjumper’s side. “The humming you hear is their way of communication, a very lovely music in my opinion.” 

“Yeah, I agree. It’s beautiful.” I whispered softly. “Is he your friend?” 

“Yes. An old friend.” 

“What’s his name?” 

“I don’t know his name actually.” 

“What?” I turned to look at him, slightly shocked to know that. He shrugged.

“Each Cloudjumper has a name given by their mothers when they are born which means we cannot change the name that was already given. Besides, their names are not known to us. You will simply have to learn to identify your Cloudjumper in some other way.” 

“But.. can’t you just do some telepathy stuff to know?” I pointed a finger towards my head and he shook his head.

“No, I can only give commands and requests but not _ actually _ communicate with them.” 

“Why?” I don’t understand entirely how telepathy works but there has to be _ some _ way to know their names, right?

“I don’t know. There is much we still don’t know about them.” 

I watched as Daavit faced me, while resting a hand on the back, and with the other hand pointed towards the white Cloudjumper. I knew he was telling me to climb on. I reached up to the back and pulled myself up, with some difficulty and help from Daavit. He climbed to sit behind me and grabbed the reins that were attached to the Cloudjumper. Nabir walked up close to us and licked me in the face.  
  
“Will she be okay?” I asked and wiped myself. She went to lick Daavit in the face as well and then backed away from us. 

“Yes, she knows her way to the city very well. Don’t worry.” 

And with that, the Cloudjumper levitated upwards and took off in the direction of the city. From below, Nabir was running after us across the grasslands, never stopping to take a break. Daavit told me that the Argathi, her species, had a lot of stamina and could handle long distance runs. The Cloudjumper was gracefully soaring high up in the sky, humming softly. I have always loved flying, which is why I became a pilot in the first place. I would rather be in up above than be grounded. But this was not like flying a jet, as I almost fell off the Cloudjumper when it made a sharp turn. Luckily, Daavit’s arms were positioned near my waist which caught me from falling. 

“How long will this take?” I asked as I looked down at the landscape, with the trees disappearing from behind. I could see small critters spread and run away from the sight of the Cloudjumper above and Nabir on the ground, across the grass and into the ground. Most likely ground dwelling creatures, I noted. 

“About half an hour. Would you like me to speed up?” He moved his arms to make the Cloudjumper move faster but I held his arm to stop him. 

“No, no, you don’t have to! I only wanted see if I could take a nap. If that’s okay with you. I haven’t slept all night.” I released my grip on his arm and covered my mouth as I yawned. It would be a perfect opportunity to sleep easily without having to worry about anything for a short while and gather some energy.

“It’s alright with me. Go ahead, I will make sure you won’t fall off.” He smirked as he said that and I shook my head. I shuffled around to lean on the flying creature and rested my head on my crossed arms. It was awkward with the helmet on but I was too tired to care about that right now. 

Slowly, I felt my sleepiness taking over my body and closed my eyes, the grasslands being the last thing seen before going dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot :)c  
Taurian sheet will be uploaded eventually


	4. Welcome to Terronda

_ Where was I? I thought as my eyes scanned the area around me._

_ I was standing on the surface of the water in a large, dark room, so dark that I couldn't see the walls. The water wasn’t sinking my feet in and I could walk on it without a problem. Looking down at the water, I could see my reflection but I was not wearing my astronaut suit but my other, more flexible suit. The reflection broke up from the waves on the water created by my feet taking a step forward. _

_ ”Lex.” _

_ A voice called out my name. It wasn’t recognizable at first but then it repeated itself, getting louder and louder each time it said my name. _

_ ”Lex.” _

_ The name echoed everywhere around me, until it suddenly stopped. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me around to see Thomas. He was angry and looked almost distorted. The bullet hole on his forehead was bright red and seeping blood onto the water below. I couldn’t speak at all. I was too terrified to speak. _

_ Thomas opened his mouth impossibly wide, unhinging his jaw in the process and screamed out my name _.

”_LEX! _” 

I shot up from my sleeping position on the Cloudjumper and hit my back on Daavit’s torso, who had grabbed my shoulder to keep me still. I quickly looked around in confusion and drowsiness before rubbing my eyes to wake myself up and stretched my arms. 

”Are we there yet?” I groaned as some of my muscles and neck were already sore from the quick nap I took. It will definitely get a lot worse later on when I manage to get a longer sleep. Daavit let go of my shoulder and held onto the reins again.

”Yes, we are almost there. You can see it from here.” 

With the help from the moon it lit up the city in front of us. A few complex buildings were positioned in the center, stretching out and becoming smaller buildings that were scattered at random. The center, which resembled a large castle surrounded by forest, had the most lighting and while the others had light as well, it wasn’t in the same quantities as the castle had. I guessed that inhabitants in the center were more active in whatever they did down there, than the rest. My curiosity was waking up from its slumber as I wanted to get closer to the buildings and observe. This would be my first time seeing alien architecture and I was excited! However, in the back of my head I was still cautious of this whole situation, despite that I’ve only received kindness so far, especially from Daavit. I have no idea what kind of people there were down there and I have to be careful as to not get in the way of someone bad. 

The Cloudjumper hummed and lowered down enough to fly above the new treelines. I looked down at the trees, wondering if I could spot Nabir still running around. But the thick tree layer covered most the ground, leaving almost nothing to be seen. 

”She ran past us. Don’t worry.” Daavit spoke from behind and I returned my gaze at the nearing city. 

Daavit made the silvery creature increase its speed to reach the city faster. The wind blew hard at my exposed face and I shivered slightly in reaction. My body temperature hasn’t reached its normal values yet, mostly my face being cold. The main suit was doing great at insulating the cold coming in though so I wasn’t too worried about catching a cold. 

The Cloudjumper eventually decreased its speed until it hovered a feet above the ground and gracefully stopped in front of a long pathway, which only consisted of trees and other vegetation on both sides. We hopped off the nice Cloudjumper and thanked it. It gave one last melodic hum before flying off above the trees, in the direction of the pathway. I stared into the pathway, noticing it was dark further in. 

”Is it the way to the city?” I asked Daavit as he stood next to me and nodded. 

”Yes. Let’s go.” He said and began casually walking towards the trees. I followed close after him, looking around cautiously. I didn’t want to deal with another freaky alien pouncing and almost killing me!

But nothing happened. In fact, the pathway was very quiet, except for a few critters running around, which I could spot this time. Very small, fluffy and large-eyed. I couldn’t see more of them as they ran past us. The trees were standing tall and covered the entire sky above, only some light managing to penetrate through small gaps, giving a nice green colour to the environment. I wish I had a camera with me to take photos. 

”There are some things I need to tell you before we reach the main entrance.” Daavit suddenly spoke, breaking away my attention to the beautiful nature around us. 

He had clasped his arms to his back and had straightened his back. He looked very regal like that, in fact his clothes made him seem even more regal. How could he be the King’s ’stealth expert’, spy or whatever, looking like _ that _?

”Yeah?” I replied and craned my neck to look at him. My neck hurt a bit from being sore and I went to massage it. 

”We will be mentally communicating with each other when we get there.” He began and I listened, interested at what he had to say. ”I know your injury won’t make it easy but this is necessary.” 

”Why?” I asked, somewhat confused. 

”It’s because we will be going to the king’s castle… Not many people are out at this time, which is good but we will definitely get stares from the ones that are.” 

”Is it because I am human or what?” 

Daavit gave me a slow nod and stopped walking. I did the same thing, observing what he was doing. Instead of having that same blank expression as before, it showed worry. What was he worrying about? Was it the people or the king that worried him? There was definitely something he didn’t tell me yet and I waited patiently for him to speak, to know what was going on. 

Air escaped through his nostrils. “It’s more the fact that you are otherworldly. We haven’t had good experience with that before so people won’t trust easily, especially the king himself.”

The tall alien stared down at the ground and folded his arms together, his muscles tensed up against his own skin. Despite seeming lanky, he was surprisingly well fit, at least on the body parts that were visible. The rest were hidden away from the clothes. I could see his thin tail, that was visible through the open slit of the clothing, sway from one side to another in a slow pace. It reminded me a lot of a cat’s behaviour, since I have one myself. 

”So do you just want me to be quiet the whole way as to not attract much attention?” I doubted that being quiet would reduce the amount of attention since _ I _ am the alien to _ them _. I didn’t know why Daavit would get attention as well but it might be due to his rank with the king or whatever monarchy thing they had going. 

Daavit nodded. ”Yes, it would be the best way. We will speak with each other telepathically, as I said before.” I stepped up next to him and pat his arm, because I couldn’t reach his shoulders. I wasn’t sure why I even did that action. Probably because I wanted to comfort him.

”In that case, I don’t think it would be a big problem.” As long as I got to talk with someone, I wouldn’t mind which way to do so, even if my head will hurt like shit. Daavit’s biceps had relaxed a bit as he unfolded his arms to hang on his sides. His dark, cat-like lips formed a smile of appreciation and his upturned eyes tightened up. I could see that his tail had stopped moving. 

“If your headache gets too much for you to handle, please tell me so I can stop, okay?” As he turned his head to look at me, his expression changed to a more serious one. I was definitely not going to hide away my pain so I nodded and he continued walking. 

We spent the rest of our time on the pathway, enjoying the company and the sounds of nature. I wasn’t sure how long it took as I had no longer track of time. Star would be the one telling me about the time but… They still haven’t responded to me since they declined my help. 

We eventually reached the main entrance to the city. It didn’t have any gates that would block people from entering but had several guards staring out into the forest and others keeping watch from inside the city. They were very well built and wore clothes similar to Daavit’s except the loose parts reached up to their thighs and were black in colour. Their upper body and down to their knees were covered in grey armour with intricate carvings and patterns on the surface of the metal. As we stopped in front of the entrance, I spotted the same orange swirl patterns on their chests that was on Daavit’s clothing. 

_ Interesting, _ I thought as I observed the tall alien beside me speak to them in their native language, _ I wonder what that pattern means. _

The guards were staring down at me every so often while speaking to Daavit, seeming unsure about his decision to let me be seen by the king. I gave the guard a small smile and waved to them but only received a hard stare, lowered my hand and looked away. What the hell? They continued to talk until the guard sighed in defeat and stepped aside for us to pass through, while telling something to Daavit as he walked past. I followed him and tried to ignore the eyes of the guards watching me walk into their city.

It was difficult. It felt like I had just started a new school again but this time on an entirely different planet. The people that were out at this time reacted differently to seeing me and Daavit. Some looked relieved and happy to see Daavit but as soon as they spotted me they either watched me cautiously or simply walked away from us as if I had the plague. 

’_Now we can speak like this._’ I heard his soft voice echo in my head. It startled me a bit since I have yet to get used to it. ’_Does it hurt? _’

’_A bit but I can handle it._’ It felt really strange speaking mentally like this. Or was it more thinking than _ speaking _? 

’_Good.. I have to warn you about the king before we get to his place._’ He said as he smiled and nodded at a stranger waving at him. A lot of people must like him and for a reason I didn’t know. 

’_Alright, let’s talk about the kingly man. What about him? _’ I said and heard a snort come from Daavit’s mouth, which made me feel pleased.

’_Well, the most important thing about him is that he is… not easy to persuade about something he does not approve of or does not like. As I said before, we did not have great experience with otherworldly creatures before so if he sees you, large chance is that he does not want you here in our city._’ Daavit explained as he looked over to me, who was facing forward the entire time. 

’_Can’t you inform him that I am not a threat? You said it yourself that he sent you to investigate._’ I asked, a short silence coming from Daavit. 

’_I … will try to do so._ _I’m not sure that is enough to convince him though._’ 

’_Then what’s enough to convince him? _’ I asked again but this time glancing over to Daavit. His eyes closed shut and shook his head slightly. 

’_I don’t know. We will see when we meet him. _’ 

I sighed and could only nod in response. We walked past low built houses and, what appeared to be, market places that were empty for the night. The few people we walked past looked quite similar to Daavit except differences in height and appearance as well the clothes they wore. What I noticed though was that nobody else on this area wore clothes like Daavit. 

’_People here really like you. Are you a hero or something? _’ I asked, smirking as he placed a hand on his chest and greeted a couple standing next to an open house, doing the same gesture. He continued walking straight towards the castle.

’_No, I am not a hero. It is because of my status._’ A soft sigh escaped his mouth as he shook his head, seeming bothered by the attention he got. It was as I expected.

’_Is it a special status or? _’ 

’_You could say it is like that. I’ll… explain everything to you later._’ And after that it was quiet. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that but it definitely made me curious to know. 

During the time of walking, we met Nabir who happily licked my face several times before Daavit could stop her. He got some of the licks from her as well. She eventually wandered off to somewhere, which even Daavit couldn’t answer as to where, since Nabir usually explored her surroundings on random spots. After that, we wandered through the midsection of the city with the amount of houses as well as the number of inhabitants increasing. There were still not many people outside but I could see a large difference between the two areas. However, that meant the double the amount of stares from the inhabitants. It was making me incredibly uncomfortable. Their fiery eyes bore into my soul and made me feel exposed in some way, as if I was getting judged from inside out. 

From the corner of my eyes I could see that Daavit was giving me a concerned look. I gave him a reassuring smile.

’_I am okay, do not worry. They are just making me feel uncomfortable._’ 

’_We are almost there. Can you do it? _’ He asked me, the concern never fading away. I nodded, forcing myself to ignore what was happening around us and kept on going. 

We eventually reached outside the king’s castle after a while of walking through the woods, with a long and wide path, that surrounded the castle. I followed Daavit to a large garden with a few people tending to the vegetation and flowers. He greeted them as we passed by. The workers seemed confused with my presence but waved at me nonetheless, which I happily responded with a wave back and a big smile. 

‘_I will try to extend my translations further this time. Perhaps it will help you understand everyone better._’ Daavit told me, turning back to face me for a second before climbing up a short staircase and opening the large doors that poured out light from inside. He stood by the side of the door, holding it open for me as I entered inside. I blinked a few times from the sudden bright lights and held up a hand to cover the side of my face. The doors behind me closed shut and Daavit quietly walked past me, motioning with his arm to follow after him. 

‘_Just a question; what is the king’s name? _’ I asked Daavit. He glanced to me and smiled.

‘_Kaamon._’ 

I memorised it in my head and nodded. 

The large corridor we walked on was decorated with patterns I have never seen before, along with white-gold colours on the walls and ceiling. I spotted some frames hung up on the walls as we walked past them. They were very well painted, depicting several aliens posing in some way and looked quite regal. It reminded me of the way Daavit dressed but his clothing didn’t follow the same pattern. All of their clothes were white and gold while his clothes were red and yellow. I guessed they were paintings of royalty, which was pretty cool. 

’_Lex. Over here._’ I heard Daavit say to me and broke my distraction away from looking at the paintings. It felt like it was a trip to the museum again, except it wasn’t about things found on Earth. 

’_This place is really beautiful and well taken care of._’ I said, tracing a finger across the surface of a wall. No dirt or dust was picked up by my finger and I looked up at the wall.’ _ Very, well taken care of._’ 

Daavit stopped in front of another tall door but that was two times smaller than the outer door we went through. ’_ You can thank the workers here, they are doing a great job of keeping everything clean._’ 

’_Do they get paid for this? It looks like very hard work._’ 

’_It is. Most of them do get rewarded but some actually live here. They get rewarded as well but most workers choose to eat and drink with us._’ He opened the door and once again stepped aside, waiting for me to go through.

I quickly walked over to him and through the doorway into an empty room. I was about to touch a vase- or something like it, when Daavit grabbed my arm and gently pulled me away to not get distracted again. I stumbled behind Daavit as an attempt on catching up with his walking speed but he moved so fast and swiftly through rooms and corridors until he stopped at a large staircase. I smacked myself at Daavit and almost fell over, if he didn’t hold on to my arm. 

He looked over to me as I placed a hand to my helmet and groaned. ‘_ Oh, I am sorry, did I hurt you? _’ He asked, concerned again and I shook my head. 

‘_No, no, don’t worry. It’s just the injury acting up again. _’ I felt Daavit let go of my arm and bent down to my height. He then lifted his hand to the strange bandage surrounding my head and carefully took a look at the wound. I watched his bright, fiery eyes scan my forehead and the bandage for a while, mumbling something I couldn’t understand, to himself. Eventually, he let go of the bandage and stood up in his normal position again. This time his mouth moved.

“The bandage needs to be changed today. I can take you to the healers here after the meeting with the king or would you like that to happen now?” Daavit asked me and as I was about to respond, another voice cut through our conversation. 

“Daavit! Where have you been!?” A tall alien, who looked just like Daavit but somewhat lighter in skin colour and different fancy clothes, ran up to Daavit. They looked extremely annoyed with Daavit. I decided to stay close to him and only listen to them. “_ He _ is really, really mad.” 

“I went to investigate, as he told me to.” Daavit sounded irritated. The stranger got up close to his face and jabbed a finger on his chest. 

“Your little investigation took too long! What the hell are you going to say to him about that? Taking a long stroll at the beach and ignore your mission?” They asked, almost snarling at Daavit, who just stared at them with a blank expression. I saw their eyes change direction as they saw me standing behind Daavit. They folded their arms together and glared at me. “So, is that what you found there? What a disgusting little thing.”

I clenched my fists from anger quickly building up in me from the rude comment. I took a step forward to throw a hard punch but Daavit held out his arm in front of me, stopping me from acting stupid. “Teela, they know what you are saying. Watch your tongue.” He warned the other alien.

”Tsk.” Was all that came out from their mouth and they turned around as they were waving us away rather dismissively. ”You better get to him soon or he will be even more displeased with you.” 

And with that, the alien was gone. Daavit lowered his arm from blocking me and sighed. I craned my neck up to him and watched him shake his head. ”Don’t mind her. She has always been like that.” 

”Well, not if she has to say rude things like that. Like, where the hell did that even come from!” I yelled in anger. Daavit looked away, possibly ashamed from what just had happened and I took a breath to calm myself down. ”I’m sorry, I just get angry easily. As you have probably seen.” 

He let out a snort. ”You are correct about that, Lex. I have never seen someone so tiny be that angry.” He teased as I pouted and folded my arms over my chest. I had a feeling that those comments won’t stop anytime soon. 

”Well, haven’t you heard? Short people are angrier because they are closer to Hell.” I replied to his comment, smiling a little when I saw his confused expression form on his face. ”I will tell you what I mean later. We have more important things to do.” 

He nodded and began climbing up the large staircase in front of us with me following right behind. We reached to the second floor and was lead to another room, this time a bedroom where Daavit told me to put down my things here. I did as I was told and flipped my backpack off my back and onto the carpeted floor, next to a dresser-like furniture. Daavit took the shotgun he had strapped to his back the whole time and put it down on the same spot. He advised me to do the same with the gun strapped to my thigh. The gun was shoved inside the backpack and I stood up to walk out of the room, but paused. Daavit noticed.

”What is it?” He asked, watching me move my hands to the neck of my suit and underneath the helmet. 

”Just gonna take this off.” I responded casually, poking around the helmet until the zipper was found and pulled it around. Then I gripped around the broken screen and tugged it off the rest of the suit. Daavit was watching me intently as I brushed around my brown hair to not stand up. 

”Man, the helmet was starting to get really annoying to wear.” I mumbled and placed my helmet on the floor with my other things. Daavit gave me a small smile and chuckled. 

”Let’s hurry downstairs to speak to Kaamon.” Daavit gestured with his hand towards the staircase. I nodded and followed after Daavit to where he was leading me. I wanted to admire the size and detail put on this castle but had no time when Daavit was speed walking the whole way. I basically had to _ jog _ after him to keep up as his strides were long and fast. Why did I have to be small!?

He reached to a large, and closed, door and spoke softly to me. ”Here he is.” He said and carefully opened the door, revealing a large and very well decorated room.

It was lit up with enough light for me to see every corner of it. There was a long, soft red carpet on the floor leading up to a large ’throne’, where the king was sitting. I walked behind Daavit as he began moving towards the king. I saw that he was not pleased with Daavit and even less pleased with seeing me. We stood a few feet away from him when Daavit bowed. He told me to do the same, which I complied and did an awkward, fast bow. 

”I apologize for my late arrival.” Daavit spoke as he looked back up towards the king. ”There have been a few complications.” 

I began observing the king who had narrowed his eyes at Daavit. ”I can see that.” He responded and gripped on his staff hard. He was wearing white and gold coloured clothing, just like on the paintings I saw before. It was long and reached to the floor as he was on a sitting position. One part of his clothing was draped over his right arm, enough to hide it from view. 

The large man in front of us was very much alike the others except his dome was a lot bigger and decorated with more protrusions than anyone else that I have seen so far, and a large burn scar going from his cheek to half of the side of his dome. I felt myself cringe from the sight of the scar. That looked _ painful _. His tail flicked over to rest on his feet and he leaned forward, towards me. I couldn’t help but gulp in fear. I haven’t even spoken to him and I already feel intimidated by him.

Then he glanced over to Daavit, going very quiet for a while. I guessed they were talking through telepathy so I only could watch their expressions change. It went from anger to frustration on Kaamon’s face, while Daavit’s blank expression didn’t change at all. I wondered what the Hell they were saying to each other for the king to be so angry. 

The king sighed and spoke louder this time. "Get the healer to pick it up. I need to speak with you, Daavit, in _ private _.” He bared his teeth and snarled as he said it. After a few minutes of awkward silence and exchange of death glares between Daavit and Kaamon, I heard the door open again and saw someone walking towards my direction. 

’_Welcome! I am one of the healers here and I was called over to treat your injury, correct? _’ The alien said and gave me a small smile. I nodded and was quickly lead out of the room with my head starting to throb again. I glanced back to Daavit, who did the same thing to look back at me. I had a bad feeling growing in my stomach as the door slowly closed behind us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a link for Daavit! https://sta.sh/01tnijj0983t  
I will upload it to my dA sometime and when I do, I will update the link.
> 
> Also enjoy! It's quite short but I felt like that's enough.


	5. Temporary Breaks

After the human left, I straightened my back and fixed my gaze at the king, who didn’t look pleased at all. I broke the mental link between me and Lex temporarily so I could speak in my native language. However, before I could start on a sentence, he spoke.

”Why did you bring it here?” He asked, gripping his metallic staff hard. ”Didn’t I tell you to _ kill _ it if it was found to be alive?” 

”Yes, you did.” When I had found the human near death from bleeding, I didn’t think of what I was doing. I abandoned my mission to save a stranger’s life and that was enough to piss him off.

”Then why is it still alive?” Kaamon’s voice grew more angry. ”Tell me, Daavit, why is that creature still alive?” 

Silence. I was worried of what Kaamon would possibly do to Lex. I have seen what they did to the captured Xic Zuri 13 years ago by leaving them stranded on the Ardirian Desert. That was an entirely different situation compared to the human situation though as Lex didn’t seem to be threatening or plotting something as far as I have seen, so I wasn't sure what he would do. Kaamon slammed down the staff on the floor which gave off a loud, echoing noise that broke me away from my train of thoughts. 

”Answer me, Daavit!” Kaamon shouted, getting more agitated by the minute. 

”He was dying, I had to do something.” 

”You chose to ignore my words and warnings of the outworlders and then go ahead and _save _one? You know fully well what happened the last time visitors came to our planet.” Kaamon lowered his voice at the end and closed his eyes. I looked down at my feet, remembering the suffering our people had to endure from the attacks. So many of our warriors and citizens died at the hands of those evil creatures. 

”I understand why you helped it, Daavit. I really do. But you do not know it well enough yet, who knows what it is actually hiding from us?” Kaamon continued as I slowly glanced back up to him. He had softened his grip on the staff and leaned back on the seat. 

I could finally find my words and spoke up. ”You are right but that is why I would like to know him more. Killing him without having enough proof of his intentions will not help us learn how to trust again.” I explained and then looked down at my feet again, speaking softly and quietly. ”I want to befriend him.” 

Kaamon stared at me for a long while before leaning onto his hand and rubbed his temples. He was clearly frustrated over this. I heard him sigh and move up from his seat, towering over me and stepped down. His white and gold coloured clothing reached past his heels, almost touching the floor as he walked over to my direction. 

”I will give you full responsibility over the human. You can do whatever you wish to do and take it anywhere.” That made my eyes widen slightly, surprised to hear that coming from Kaamon’s mouth. ”However, _ if _ it behaves suspiciously or wishes to do harm on any of us then you have to take them in to us and we will take care of it. And if you don’t follow my instructions this time, you _ will _ get in trouble as well. Is that clear?” 

”But-” 

I tried to respond but was cut off with the serious, stern voice from Kaamon. 

”Is that _ clear _ , Daavit?” He repeated himself, staring down at me with narrowed, glowing orange eyes. My jaws clenched, holding back my tongue from saying anything that could get me _ and _ Lex in trouble. 

”Yes, Father.” 

”Good.” He said and turned around to go back to his throne and sat down. With his hand extended, a book hovered over to him and opened up, rapidly flipping through pages. ”You may go and watch over your human, my son.” 

I didn’t say anything but bowed and walked out from the room, slowly boiling inside. My father has always been a strict man. However, ever since what happened to our city and our mother, he had changed drastically. He became even stricter than before and laid out new rules and laws to protect our people and prepare for the next time an attack happens. 

I shook my head, trying to shove away my thoughts and walked to the healer’s room, that was located close to my father's hall. I reached up to the healer's closed door and grabbed the handle as I carefully swung it open. Lex was standing up, with his white-grey armoured suit off his body and another layer of suit beneath opened up down to his hips, exposing the whole torso. The large, purple-red bruises on stretching across his sides were visible and clearly seemed painful. The bruises covered a large spot on his side and hip. After staring at the bruises briefly, I also noticed how much smaller Lex was without wearing the awkward suit. The healer quickly stood up to greet me.

”Oh, the prince! I did not expect to see you now!” She bowed and then returned to applying a thin layer of cream over Lex’s bruises while changing bandages at the same time. Telekinesis can be very helpful in many situations such as these. ”I am a little busy with your companion right now but it will be done soon.”

”Wait, ’prince’?” I heard Lex ask in surprise and confusion at what he had just heard. ”Are you telling me that you are a prince? Like, an _ actual _ prince?”

I nodded and watched Lex blink at me for a few moments.

”Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” He asked, only able to glance at my direction and stood still as the healer kept working on patching him up. 

”I did not want my status to change your attitude towards me like most do. I wanted to know you without this fact in mind but… it is difficult as you can see.” I explained as I sat down on a chair to watch the process. Lex’s face became red as soon as I began watching them. I wasn’t sure why. Was he sick? 

”Ah… I see.” I heard Lex speak and focused on his bruises that were now covered in cream. It quickly absorbed the medicine from the surface of the skin and left the bruises as normal. ”It’s alright. I don’t really care that you are a prince and all that bullshit, as long as you are honest with me next time. Okay?” 

The healer was listening in on what we were saying. I knew because she shook her head at the way Lex spoke towards me. I didn’t mind, Lex was being honest and I will be too. She handed Lex the bottle and advised him to use it for three days and then leave the bruises be, as they should have healed up with the help of the cream. Lex zipped the suit back up, with a bit of struggle and help from the healer since the zipper was located on the back side, and decided to carry around the larger suit instead. We thanked the healer for her help and walked out of the room. 

”Are you alright?” I asked Lex, who shuffled around with the suit and folded it together, placing it under his arm. He looked up at me with a quirked eyebrow. 

”What do you mean?” 

”You seemed feverish back there. Is there something wrong?” 

”Oh… no, I am fine. Just a little embarrassed.” He replied as a nervous laughter came out. Embarrassed? 

”Hmm, I see.” I said thoughtfully and narrowed my eyes at Lex below me. Humans are quite complex organisms, as far as I could understand from what I have seen from Lex. I wanted to know more about him and his species. ”Would you like to return to the room?” 

Lex nodded and we headed back upstairs to my room where his things were placed down. Once inside, I let Lex explore around the various furnitures as well as my personal book collection, which was the first thing he had noticed. He wouldn’t be able to read or understand the languages on them but I translated the titles of the book for him whenever he asked. 

”What is this one?” Lex asked as he pulled out a thick, blue book from the book case. I recognized it as the medicinal book I received from the healer as a gift when I was a young teen. 

”It is a medicinal book. It has instructions on how to make your own medicine from plants with special healing properties.” I extended a hand in which Lex handed me over the book and flipped it open. I crouched down enough for Lex to see what was in the book and showed them the plant required for the cream they had received from the healer. 

”The plant for this one is common and grows in our gardens to use. It is called dwarf noven. It repairs cell damage very well and is an important ingredient in the cream you have and in many other types of medicine.” I explained and glanced over to Lex, who stared at the page in interest. 

”Is that why my bruises will heal up in such a short time span?” He asked while rubbing his chin in thought. I nodded and flipped over a hundred pages to another plant. 

”This plant, poison dapal, is not as common as the dwarf noven but is well known for being analgesic, however, only in small doses.” It has the name ‘poison’ in it after all. Lex only stared blankly at the page and the drawings of the plant.

”I wish I could understand what the page says. The drawings are nice though.” Lex mumbled. 

”I can teach you sometime if you would like that.” I suggested to Lex and carefully closed the book, handing it over to Lex.

”That would probably be useful. I don’t know how long I am going to stay trapped here afterall.” He walked back over to the bookcase and placed it back on its original spot. 

Trapped. He wasn’t wrong about it. With no way back into the vast space around us and no contact with other humans, Lex will remain trapped here. My city wasn’t well focused on the subjects of space and space travel either so he wouldn’t get much help here. I wasn’t sure how pleased my father will be over those news. 

”Well, let’s make your stay as enjoyable as possible then.” Unless we don’t get killed first, I thought, not saying that out loud to Lex. I didn’t want him to worry even though considering the fact that a lot of inhabitants hate outworlders and could try to hurt him in some way or another. I knew that very well and so did Lex. That’s why I was here to keep an eye on Lex’s safety as it was my responsibility now.

”Ah right. Before I forget.” Lex said and moved up his hand close to his face and pulled off the strange colourful thing that he had wrapped around his fingertip. Both Lex and I were very confused at what we were seeing. The hole on the suit’s finger was completely gone. 

”How is that possible?” He blurted out in shock and examined his finger closely. I was wondering that as well. 

”Give me your hand.” I said as I reached out mine to grab his and took a look at the suit. It was very well designed for survival against weather and tear, though it couldn’t win against Nabir’s spines and he would still need the other suit for complete protection. I pinched a bit of the suit and stretched it out, sensing the strength and flexibility coming from it. 

”Humans created this?” I asked Lex, and saw him nod while smiling. I was amazed. ”I think this was made to not just protect you, but also fix any tears that might occur.”

”I guess that makes sense.” He responded while staring down at his hands and pressed on the finger where the colourful thing was and hissed slightly in pain. The small injury was still there. ”I should’ve listened better to the manufacturers’ babbles.” 

He then let his arms hang on his sides and walked over to the bookcase. Lex stood there for a long while, looking at the back of the books and trying to understand the language. With help from me of course.

”What about this one?” He stepped aside to show me the back of a dark red, quite old book. I knew immediately what it was and quickly moved over to him.

”It is nothing special! Just a boring book.” I said nervously and saw Lex stare at me, suspicious of my sudden actions. Of all things, why did he _have_ to pick my old notebook?

”Oh?” I heard him say under his breath and opened the book to a random page. He then fell silent as I turned to watch him scan the pages with furrowed confused brows. At that moment, I was incredibly happy that Lex couldn’t understand our language. 

”Lame. It doesn’t have pictures.” 

I sighed in relief and continued to watch him put it back in its place. After that, he turned around to face me and yawned. ”I think I need to sleep. I haven’t done that for almost 24 hours.” 

The exhaustion was visibly clear on his face with baggy, heavy eyelids. I haven’t seen him sleep properly since the crash and figured that he deserved a well-earned rest. I glanced over to my empty bed and got an idea. 

“You have the bed over there to sleep on.” I said and pointed over to the large bed situated close to the corner of the room. “I personally do not use it much anymore so you are free to sleep on it as much as you want.” 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to sleep on it if you will use it at some point.” Lex looked unsure about sleeping on the bed but I smiled softly at him.

“Yes, I am sure. I prefer to sleep on the floor than on the bed. I only ever use it when I am not planning on doing it of course.” 

“Why sleep on the floor?” Lex asked as he walked over to the bed and pressed down on the mattress with his hands. I bent down to sit on the floor, a bit away from the bed and crossed my legs together as well as placing my hands to my knees. 

“I find it more comfortable than the bed. That way I can focus on my thoughts and dreams better.” I watched Lex sit down at the edge of the bed. He leaned back enough in a position to rest on his elbows and looked over to my direction.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked, seemingly confused at what I was talking about. 

“It is a little difficult to explain and I am not sure if you will listen properly.” 

Lex shifted his position to lay on his stomach and crossed his arms, chin resting above them. “Oh no, you caught my interest! I can keep myself awake for a little while longer.” A smile formed on my face, happy to have someone listen to my explanations. 

“I basically use my telepathy to control my subconscious.” I began and watched Lex’s big brown eyes stare at me with interest. “That way I process my thoughts and dreams and decide what to do with them. Imagine storing away or bringing out thoughts, information and other things when you need them. Sometimes I just take it easy in my mental space instead.”

“Mental space? Like a room?”

“Kind of.” I wasn’t sure how to describe my mental space as it was not a tight space. I was also not sure if I should talk to Lex about my mental space, it is a private thing after all but… I doubt he would invade it. Humans lack that ability. “It is like a large landscape? ” 

“Is it a nice one?” Lex asked, still watching me intently. I chuckled and nodded. It is a beautiful, green landscape that was special to me and no one else. 

“Very. I tend to go there when I need a break from reality.” 

“Wow… I wish I could do that.” Lex grumbled to himself. ”Humans are quite boring. We don’t really have any powers like that.” 

”But your species did craft your suit, the ship and the computer with you. I think that is an impressive power.” I looked over at the broken helmet on the floor. It has been quiet since their last conversation at the lake.

”Yeah, those who do that have more impressive résumés than I do.” Lex chuckled at his own comment. 

“You are a pilot, specialised in _ space travel _. That is a very impressive skill to have in my opinion!” I folder my arms together and frowned. “Please, do not think so lowly of yourself, okay? You are much more interesting than you think.” 

There was a long awkward silence between us. I watched Lex glance at the floor below for a moment before turning around to lay on his back and sighed. 

“Yeah, you are right. Sorry about that.”

“It is alright.” I could only give him a small, reassuring smile. It seemed to make Lex ease up a bit. 

We didn’t speak after that. I didn’t mind, he was tired and I didn’t want to keep him up any longer. I stayed up a while to make sure Lex had fallen asleep before I closed my own eyes and focused on entering my mental space. 

It was dark for a long time but eventually, I would be able to see the light. It took a while before I sensed a familiar warmth on my face, spreading all over to my body and the touch of grass surrounding my legs. Slowly, I opened my eyes. Vegetation and grass for miles to come and always have new areas to explore. My safe place. My mind.

* * *

I took a deep breath of the fresh air around me and grinned happily. It was always a delight to return here and recollect my thoughts, relax and explore. This time I didn’t want to explore much, but instead sit on the same spot and watch my surroundings to see if anything had changed. 

It had_ somewhat_ changed. It was windy, a strong breeze flowing past me and the grass leaning away in the direction of the wind. This change wasn’t concerning as weather here was affected by my emotions. I looked up at the clouds in the sky. The usually pure white clouds have built up above me, clashing together to become larger. A grey colour could be seen colouring them, slowly blending together with the white. If left alone to brood over, it might turn to a thunderstorm. 

I knew what was happening. A sigh escaped. My father made something stir up in me each time he spoke about outworlders. Anger? Yes, anger. But I always shove my anger away as soon as it emerges because our arguments were sometimes dumb and not worthy of getting bothered over for a longer time. We may not always agree with each other but that’s how families are. I don’t always agree with my sister either as she shares similar ideas as my father. It was only me and my other, much younger sibling, Solal who stood out. I realised that I haven’t seen them at all since my return. They probably ran around the castle to hide from Teela and her combat lessons again. I chuckled at the thought and shook my head.

My eyes moved to the sky once again. The clouds have regained their regular white colours and hovered above ever so calmly. The winds have slowed down as well, only sometimes a gust of wind would shake the grass around. I smiled at the sky. 

Sol was a mischievous, yet kind and smart child. Everything in their mind was a playground for playing and challenge. As they have not yet matured, they are free to do so without getting in trouble, unless it’s a prank or ’accidental destruction of property’, as they have told me. I wish I still had that freedom but I am an adult and as both adult _ and _prince, I had to behave. I sigh and look at the blue horizon in front of me. Sol wasn’t born yet when the attacks happened, in fact they were born ten years later. Complications happened with our mother months after Solal’s birth and... well, Sol never had the chance to know our mother like we did.

I looked down at the ground and shook the emerging memories of our mother away from my mind to think about something else. It wasn't the right time to think about her. I instead stared at the grassy ground for a long time. It was supposed to be a break from reality but I was never truly away from it. It always came to haunt you when you least expect it. I silently hoped next time would be a calmer one and got up from my position to stretch my legs from sitting so long. 

Then I began strolling down the long, endless grass field. There was no life here other than the vegetation and me, of course. Which meant that everything was quiet, except for the winds creating noise on the treetops and the grass rustling. I walked until I reached a large hill that I haven’t seen before. A new place? 

I immediately began climbing up the hill, my feet finding rocks protruding out from the side of the hill and swiftly reached to the top. I could see the vast landscape around me with no end in sight. I smiled and sat down once again, taking in a deep breath. I noticed something different about the air. It smelled like… rain?

I looked at the sky and saw the clouds that were still grey and rumbling lowly. ”That’s strange.” I said, confused and looked around. I had repressed my emotions before and it usually returned to normal after that, which meant that something else was affecting the weather here. 

_ ’No…’ _ a low voice echoed in the sky. I looked up to squint my eyes and saw nothing up there, just the clouds rumbling again.

_ ’No!’ _ I heard again and realised that I recognised the voice. Lex?

I quickly shut my eyes and focused my way out of the space and back to the real world. However, I was met with silence as soon as I returned. I opened my eyes slowly and glanced out the window next to me, as the sun was rising with its brilliant colours painted across the sky. Time passed by pretty quickly out here.

I looked at the bed, seeing the chest of the human rising up and down fast with each breath and shuffling around. He was mumbling something in his sleep, sounding… scared? I carefully got up from the floor and walked silently over to the bed, even though the floor didn’t make noise to begin with. My eyes scanned the human, mainly his face, which was grimacing and furrowed his eyebrows. I noticed he was sweaty as well by looking at the glistening skin from the sunlight illuminating the room. I realised at that point that he was having a nightmare. 

Lex writhed in his sleep, still mumbling things which I had difficulty understanding at first. As I inched closer to him, I could hear his words properly.

”I’m so sorry.” He mumbled, clearly sounding upset at what he was seeing in his nightmare. I was wondering if I should see what his nightmare was but I quickly abandoned that thought. It wasn’t right to do that at this moment. 

Instead I slowly placed a hand across his bandaged forehead which covered up his eyes as well because of the size of my hand and his hair tickling the surface of my skin. His skin was sticky from the sweat and I couldn’t help but to feel uncomfortable at the touch. 

”Thomas, I didn’t mean to... I didn’t mean to.” I heard Lex mumble again as his head moved around, along with my hand following it. I sighed and closed my eyes, focusing on the nightmare plaguing Lex’s mind. I sensed the negative energy coming from it and quickly grasped it before it could escape. As soon as I began forcing it away from his mind, I felt his hand gripping tightly around my hand. The pressure increased in strength as the nightmare was fading away from his mind, but I kept on going and ignored it. 

Then his hand suddenly released its grip and slipped away when I managed to ward off the nightmare entirely. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked directly at Lex sleeping, this time more peacefully and not mumbling in his sleep anymore. I smiled softly, pleased at the results and silently moved away from the bed to not accidentally wake him up. Hopefully he wouldn’t get another nightmare soon, I thought and went back to my spot on the floor.

A book was pulled out from the bookcase behind me and swiftly hovered over to me. I let it drop to my hands and flipped it open to a page marked with a thick, white thread. I haven’t had the time to read these days while I was away from the building, which meant that I finally have the chance to continue on the story without getting interrupted. I listened to any noise that could indicate someone coming up to my room. After a few minutes of nothing, I shrugged and eagerly went ahead to read the book. 

* * *

After a long while of reading few chapters from the book, I grew bored and slowly closed the book. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right mood to actually read something today. I glanced over to the sleeping form on the bed to check on him. He was covering his face with an arm and laid completely still, with only his chest rising up and down. There was nothing coming from him that would indicate another nightmare which was a good sign.

The book was placed on my lap as I glanced to the window again. The sun has almost risen up in the sky, washing its warming light across the cold landscape and scaring off the nocturnal critters into hiding. I had the sudden urge to open the window and watch the view from the balcony. 

I then heard a movement coming from the bed and quickly looked over to see that Lex had woken up. From what I could see, it must have been because of the sunlight pouring in from the window. My bed was situated exactly where the sunrise could be seen on the horizon and he had slept on the right spot as well. He was rubbing his eyes for a moment and blinked several times until he looked at me, less tired than before but still in need with more sleep. 

”Good morning, Lex.” I said and gave him a small smile. He waved to me, short and slowly as he yawned. ”Slept well?”

”Eh, kinda. I had a nightmare but it stopped for some reason and had another dream. Don’t remember that one though.” Lex spoke in a low voice and leaned on the edge of the bed, wincing from the pain on his side and rested his chin on the crossed arms. He noticed the book on my lap and tilted his head in curiosity. ”Did you not sleep?” 

”I did but… I woke up and decided to read instead.” I explained, placing a hand on the book cover. 

”What woke you up?”

I wasn’t sure how to explain that he woke me up because of his mumbles in his sleep without sounding weird. ”...You?” Was all I could say. He looked confused.

”What? Did I talk in my sleep?” He asked and I nodded. He moved a hand to rub his eyes and sighed. ”Sorry, I should have told you that I do that sometimes.” 

”It is alright, I know now. It was just… a bit strange.” I smiled awkwardly and watched Lex’s face change colour to soft red again. ”Not strange in a bad way! Just… I have never heard anyone talk in their sleep before.” 

”Did I say anything weird?” 

I smirked and tilted my head as my hand moved to rub my chin, as if I was in thought. “You mentioned something about eating a child and setting something on fire.” I said and caught a pillow mid-air, coming in my direction and was met with an annoyed Lex still on the bed. 

“Liar. I’m going to kick your ass.” He grumbled and moved to sit right up with his feet hanging on the edge of the bed. I chuckled and let the pillow float next to me as I folded my arms together. 

“I would like to see you try, little human.” I said and flung the pillow over to hit Lex softly on the head as to not ruin the bandage around his head. I watched him clutch the pillow while shooting a glare at me. He then sighed and could see a smile form on his face as he placed the pillow back on the bed. His hair was messy from the way he had slept, strands of hair pointing out in many directions. It reminded me of a baby Argathi's spines and I thought it was quite adorable. 

“Maybe when I’m not feeling lazy, then you will see. I _ will _ kick your ass.” Lex replied while pointing a finger towards me and narrowing his eyes. 

My smile widened at the threat and I chuckled again, amused with the human’s behaviour. We went silent after that and I stayed in the same position on the floor, watching Lex get up from the bed and stretch his limbs and torso. His arms moved to his forehead and slowly removed the bandage. He carefully touched the wound a few times before going to the backpack, placing the bandage inside. 

He crouched down, his heels planted on the floor, while rummaging through the backpack with his right arm. After a short while of digging through the backpack he huffed in annoyance and let himself fall to his butt to take a better look inside the backpack for something. 

“What are you looking for?” I asked in confusion as the human picked out the larger things he had in there and placed them on the floor next to him. There were _so many_ water bottles. 

“The cream. I put in here but I can’t find it.” He responded, still searching through the backpack. “It must have fallen to the bottom or something.” A metallic cylinder was pulled out and carefully put down with a small clank. 

I didn’t see where he had put it after the visit to the healer but decided to help searching by scanning the area where his things were. I used my telekinesis to move through the things he had already put out on the floor, in case it was pinned between them or well hidden underneath something. I moved a folded cloth up in the air and spotted a familiar shape on the floor. I let the cloth drop to the floor and picked up the cream bottle towards Lex, still busy looking inside the bag and nudged him with the bottle. He turned around and let out a small scream in shock of the sudden appearance of the cream bottle. Then he saw me watching him, immediately grabbed it and turned bright red in the face. 

“Don’t scare me like that. At least say something…” He said with a lowered voice and began putting back everything from the floor. I think I know now what he meant by ‘embarrassment’. I just chuckled and continued to watch him move about and close up the backpack. 

He pushed himself up from his position on the floor, grabbing the bottle along the way and sighed audibly. One arm moved to the zipper located at the nape of his neck and the other grabbed the suit and pulled the zipper down to between his shoulders. The arm changed position to reach for the zipper puller, bending uncomfortably and not managing to reach for it. Lex let his arms hang loose and groaned, probably in pain from the bruises. I smirked, focusing on taking hold of the puller and swiftly moved it all the way down to the bottom of his back. 

“Woah!” He yelled out in surprise at the sudden movement on his back and reached behind to touch his now exposed back. Lex glanced over to my direction and squinted his eyes at me, definitely knowing it was me who did it. I could only smile to him innocently. He mumbled a thank you and proceeded to peel off the sleeves and gloves of the suit and let them hang down.

“You are welcome, Lex.” I continued smiling at him as I watched him apply the medicine on the bruises. They seemed less purple than before which meant that the cream was working well. 

His back muscles tensed from each touch his hand made on the skin and observed the freckles dotted along the back all the way to the waistband of another layer of clothing. I wasn’t sure why I haven’t noticed before but there was no tail to be seen at all. I found it strange at first but considering how different we look from each other anatomically, I was sure evolution must have played its part and got curious. 

“Lex.” I said his name first to catch his attention and after getting a small ‘mm?’ as response from him I continued. “Do all humans lack tails?” I asked outloud and saw him turn his head slightly to meet my gaze. 

“Well, yeah. It’s natural for us to not have one.” He answered and returned his attention to the bruises. “Why are you asking?” 

“I noticed that you lack a tail and wanted to know.” I laughed a bit and stared at the visible waistband for a while. There was a text on the waistband that I couldn’t read. “Is it evolutionary?” I asked again and looked up at the human pausing his movements. 

“Mm... I know we are in the same family as great apes and they certainly don’t have any tails so, I guess it’s evolutionary but I’m not the best person to ask about evolution.” He smiled at me and grabbed the sleeves, shoving his arms in. 

I proceeded to help him with the zipper again and pulled it back up as soon as he reached for it and formed a wide, toothy grin on my face due to his reaction. 

“Warn me about it next time!” He yelled out this time.

“It is a lot more fun doing this though.” I chuckled. 

He stuck up a middle finger at my direction before turning around to push the bottle inside the backpack. I wasn’t sure what that hand sign even meant but I brushed it off. Then he walked over to the bed, patted off something from the covers and then remade the bed so it didn’t look as messy. 

“I could have done the bed myself, Lex. It is my bed after all.” I told him and rose from the floor, stretching my legs quickly before walking over to Lex standing next to the bed. 

“It’s only fair that I do it since I slept on it.” He looked up at me and shrugged.

I sighed and thanked him for his kind gesture. “Want to eat breakfast?” I asked.

“Sure.”

* * *

We went downstairs and through the long halls, all the way to the kitchen where steam could be seen coming out from the open door. I walked up to the open entrance and peered inside. The kitchen cooks were already working on the breakfast and dinner for everyone and it smelled delicious. I glanced over to Lex, who was standing next to me and watching the cooks run around for preparation. It was always very hectic in the mornings but it will slow down afterwards close to dinner. I sometimes help them out when they ask or when it clearly gets too much for them to handle, especially around special events or celebrations. 

“It smells weird but not bad.” I heard Lex whisper to me and moved away from the door. I did the same thing and walked past the kitchen, through another hallway and to the large hall where everyone ate. We walked in to the well decorated room and noticed it was devoid of any life, which was a perfect opportunity to show Lex around while no one was bothering us. 

He was amazed at the sheer size of the room and commented about the furniture’s details as well as carefully touching everything he saw. I made sure he didn’t touch anything fragile though, as to not accidentally break it and get in trouble. I showed him the chair where I usually sat, which was next to my father’s chair. It didn’t look any different from the rest of the chairs other than they were placed differently. 

”Everyone working eats here?” Lex asked as he grabbed onto the arm of a chair and dragged it away from the table with a loud screech echoing off the walls. We both made a pained grimace from the noise the legs gave off and I stepped forward to help him with it. 

“Yes, they do but that is if they want to. Some usually go outside to eat or have a meal after us, we do not mind.” I held the chair out and watched him carefully sit down, while wincing in pain once again, and carefully pushed forward enough for him to place his elbows on the long table. “I tend to do the same thing when I do not feel like eating, but I have to be present anyway.”

“Why? Important meetings?” Lex asked me as he rested his chin on his knuckles and kept one hand on his side. 

I grabbed the chair next to Lex and sat down, leaning back on the chair, lifted a leg over the other and clasped my hands together. “Well, yes that is one reason. It could be guests from Vulban discussing matters regarding the trades and future collaborations. My father wants us all to be there to listen and learn, I suppose.” I sighed, looking at the wall in front of us. There were several paintings standing out and some covered by red silk cloth. I noticed some dust starting to collect on the wooden frames. I made a mental note to clean it up or tell someone about it after breakfast.

“Sorry, but it sounds boring as Hell.” Lex said admittedly. “How do you not pass out from every meeting?” 

I shrugged and smiled. “I wish I could but my father would not be happy about it.” 

Lex nodded slowly and tapped on the table with a finger rhythmically. “Typical parent stuff, that’s understandable.” I watched him tap on the table for a while before the door from the other side of the room opened and saw my father step inside. He was dressed in his usual attire, with the large cloth covering his right arm. I saw his eyes narrow when he saw us but then returned to normal and silently walked up to his chair and sat down. He let his staff lean against the back of the chair. 

‘_Will the human eat with us?’ _His voice was heard in my mind and I glanced to look at my father, who was watching us both. I could hear some interest in his voice which was strange.

_ ‘Yes, father. Lex will eat with us.’ _ I replied. _ ‘Is there something?’ _

_ ‘I am only wondering, my son.’ _

_ ‘If… you say so, father.’ _I gave him a smile, which widened when he returned it. Lex had stopped tapping on the table and was watching us instead, probably realizing we were using telepathy to speak. “How was your night, father?” I spoke loudly so that Lex could understand us and perhaps even join in on the conversation. 

Kaamon blinked at the sudden change in speech but quickly cleared his throat. “It was alright. Though, I spent some time awake working before I slept.” He said as he placed his hands on the table. “Did your visit to the healer go well, human?” He must have noticed the way Lex was leaning forward in pain.

Lex didn’t seem to have been prepared for the question and stammered when he realised that Kaamon was referring to him. “Um... Yes, it went well, sir. Thank you for asking.” He seemed nervous by the presence of my father. Perhaps humans had higher authority figures as well? 

”You are in pain.” My father said calmly and watched Lex’s hand move away from his side. ”Did you use what the healer gave you?” 

Lex paused his movements and shifted his eyes to look at the empty right side of the table. ”Yes, I did… sir.” He mumbled quietly and gripped onto the edge of the table. I tilted my head and watched, concerned about him. I moved my leg to nudge at his foot and had his attention turned to me.

_ ‘What is wrong?’ _ I asked him through the mental link I quickly put up. He watched me, smiling through a pained expression.

_ ‘I am fine, it just hurts a lot.’ _ He replied, taking a soft breath as his grip softened. I felt myself sigh and shake my head. 

_ ‘Maybe you should go to my room and rest.’ _ I suggested but was met with Lex shaking his head and smiling to me again. I knew he was in a lot of pain and wanted him to go but he assured me that he could handle it. I eventually gave in from his stubbornness but I still kept an eye on him in case something would happen.

My father was watching us the whole time we interacted in silence, not moving an inch. I glanced to his direction and saw that his face was blank, which wasn’t surprising to see. I could never figure out what he was thinking. Was he observing Lex to see if he was hiding something from us? Most likely, as my father doesn’t trust outworlders.

My father suddenly spoke up and directed our attention to him. 

“Human.” He began as he leaned forward slightly and stared at Lex. “How old are you?” That unexpected question made us both look at him in confusion and then to each other. 

“I’m 26 years old, sir.” Lex answered as he blinked a few times, still with a confused look. 

“Ah, you two are the same age, that is quite interesting.” Kaamon said and moved his eyes to look at us both. Lex craned his neck towards me in surprise and lifted a hand to point at me. 

“You are 26?” I nodded. “Dude, you sound older with the way you are talking!” He exclaimed and lifted his hands in my direction. I shrugged and folded my arms as I lifted a finger to point at him.

“And you sound younger.” I smiled at him as he sighed and turned to face the table again.

“Yes, I know but I don’t sound _ that _ young.” He grumbled as I moved a hand to pat him on the shoulder. He was right though, he sounded younger but not _ too _young to be mistaken as a teen. But I wasn’t sure how my way of speaking made me sound older than I was. Most people here spoke that way, so perhaps speech and expression was different on Lex’s world?

A sound came from my father, he was clearing his throat while staring at me disapprovingly with narrowed eyes. I slowly moved my hand away from Lex’s shoulder and placed them on the table. Lex seemed confused but didn’t say anything else for the rest of the time, until more people went inside the hall and took their seats. Among the workers, I could make out the shape of Solal walking up to the chair situated at the opposite side of Lex. They paused their movements when they spotted Lex and looked over to me, their large eyes bewildered at the presence of a stranger. 

_ ‘He is friendly, do not worry.’ _ I told Sol with a soft voice and summed up the situation for them to understand what was going on. They then nodded and sat down, watching Lex for a moment before waving their small hand to him. Lex saw them and returned the wave with a smile. 

”That’s Solal, the youngest in the family.” I told Lex as he turned to give me a somewhat surprised expression but then let out a soft ’aww’. I chuckled at the reaction and glanced to Sol, who looked away in embarrassment. They are the youngest but also the cutest one in the family, despite Sol trying their hardest to look serious. I always tell them to wait a few years until maturity helps them with it. 

Next to Sol sat Teela, who was quiet and looking at my father. He was doing the same thing and I suspected that they were communicating with each other about something. I observed the table and noticed that few more workers had appeared and were chatting on while waiting for the food. 

”How old are you?” I heard Lex ask Sol with a sweeter voice than usual. 

”10!” Sol replied enthusiastically while holding up ten fingers to show Lex their age. ”What about you?” They asked, staring at Lex with wide curious eyes. 

Lex grinned and pointed towards me. ”I’m the same age as your older brother.” That seemed to make Sol excited as they gave a toothy wide grin. 

”Does that mean you are friends?” Sol looked at us both, waiting for the answer they were expecting. I knew exactly what they were expecting. I turned my head to Lex, who had done the same thing and let out a small laugh. 

“I think so?” Lex replied, still looking at me, unsure if I agreed with that fact. I had to admit, I wasn’t sure either. We don’t know each other well enough yet to call each other friends. I turned to Sol’s direction. 

“Not yet. We are acquaintances.” As I said that to Sol, their grin vanished and mouthed ‘oh’ in realisation, looking down at the table somewhat disappointed. Sol had always wanted me to have a friend for once that I could get along with and not spend my days by myself, which I had to admit was very boring. I simply didn’t have the energy to get a friend, until now at least. 

“It doesn’t mean we don’t get along, bud. Maybe we will become friends soon, who knows.” I heard Lex reassuring Sol with the same soft and calm voice as before. Sol’s eyes glanced up at the human in front, nodding quietly. Lex’s behaviour had completely changed as soon as he saw Sol come in. I guessed that he had a soft spot for children. 

My nose suddenly twitched as I smelled the air, the scent of food outside the hall coming closer registering in my brain and I turned my head towards the open door, waiting expectantly for the sight of the cooks to emerge. Lex didn’t seem to react at the smell until the last second when the cooks were spotted. They moved swiftly forward to the long table and placed down the large plates, as well as a basket full of fruit and then left the hall to continue with their work. Everyone went ahead and prepared their plates to eat. 

I grabbed a few of the fruits from the basket, placed some of them on my side and then directed my hand to Lex and put them down. He stared at the fruit for a long time, his expression showing uncertainty and then observed the others eating. 

I leaned to his side and whispered. “Are you alright?” 

He raised a hand and extended his thumb up and smiled. I wasn’t sure what the expression meant but I guessed it meant something positive. I picked up one of the fruits I had taken and dug my claws in a bit through the skin, then opened it up in two halves. Its red and yellow coloured, sweet flesh was now exposed and ready to be eaten. 

“Here.” I whispered again and offered Lex one of the halves. He took the fruit with both his hands and held it in front of his face, smelling it. “It is safe to eat, none of these fruits are poisonous and are quite sweet.” I told him and sunk my teeth into the flesh to take a bite.

It was always a pleasant feeling to eat the fruit in the mornings. I could probably go for a short while just eating fruit but I would then have to include meat in my diet if I want to last longer. I have teeth for tearing flesh too after all. From the corner of my eyes, I could see Lex carefully poking the fruit with the tip of his tongue and tasted it. After a while of not reacting, he moved the piece forward to his mouth and took a small bite. 

_ ’Does it taste good?’ _ I asked Lex as I kept eating and watching his facial expressions change from each chew. Eventually, he nodded and took another bite. 

_ ’It tastes amazing!’ _ He said as he happily gorged the piece down faster than I was. 

_ ’I told you.’ _ I smirked and continued to watch him open up a second fruit and eat it up.

He must've noticed me watching him as he then glanced to me with a quirked eyebrow. 

_ ‘You really like observing me, don’t you?’ _

I blinked and immediately looked away, feeling ashamed over my curious nature and fumbled with one the fruits I had picked up from the table. 

_ ‘I am sorry if that made you uncomfortable.’ _

Lex shrugged. _ ‘It was a little uncomfortable yeah.’ _

I wanted to slap my forehead at that point but I resisted it and instead rubbed my neck awkwardly. I wasn’t sure what to say other than apologizing to Lex for behaving strangely around him. I felt something touch my arm and looked down to see Lex had placed his hand on my bicep and gave it a quick pat. 

_ ‘It’s fine, bud. You are curious because I’m an alien to you, the same curiosity as I have towards your species. I’m just not used to people watching me. Humans would find that behaviour quite creepy, especially if it’s a stranger.’ _

He began to quickly explain the human behaviour to me. How it has changed throughout the years, people became less trusting and social with others unless you were family or friends. He mentioned something about a ‘war’ that changed the lives of so many people and creatures on Earth. I didn’t know how serious it was as he didn’t say much about it but from the change of tone from his voice, I could tell it must have changed his life drastically as well. It reminded me of the Xic Zuri attacks and the vulnerable relationship between Terrondia and Vulban. No full blown wars have broken out between us but smaller conflicts have occurred before from disagreements. 

_ ‘I hope your species don’t make the same mistakes as we did.’ _ Was the last thing Lex said before going silent and leaned over the table to rest his head on his hand. I didn’t say anything else, or press on the subject about the war. I wondered about what kind of mistakes his species had done, except for the wars, that eventually lead Lex to our planet today. 

I quietly exhaled. I’ve eaten up all of the fruit on my side and had nothing else to do, so I decided to watch what the rest of my family were doing. My father was eating on the food he picked out himself. He was probably not conversing with Teela anymore as she was busy trying to make Sol _ eat _their food instead of playing with their telekinetic powers. Sol wasn’t pleased with their older sister interfering in their little story they were playing out with the fruit. I smiled in amusement as they began arguing loudly. Sol made all the hovering fruits fly fast at her direction and she covered herself with an arm, as they smacked against her, and dropped to the floor. One of them almost hit her in the face but she caught it with one hand, then moved away her arm from her face and glared at Sol.

“You are wasting the food, Sol. How about you do not play during meals and wait _after_ them?” She growled at an annoyed Sol next to her, who stuck their tongue out at her. The fruit that were on the floor, hovered up and were carefully placed back on the table and the one she held was back in the basket. I watched her look up to me and shake her head over at what just happened. 

Solal had folded their arms together and turned their head away from us while pouting. My head shook slightly. It was a regular sibling fight. Even I had argued with them before but it was usually with Teela. She was the one who spoke up when something bothered her or voiced her opinion on things very clearly, which was why arguments between us are normal. 

I could see her stare at Lex, for a long time and not doing anything. Lex didn’t notice until he somehow could sense the stare and glanced over to her. Then they both glared at each other, with Lex furrowing his brows and Teela just narrowing her eyes. I was just watching them both having a staring match. They clearly did not like each other. 

”Stop it.” My father’s snarling voice was suddenly heard, annoyed that nobody respected the time of the meal and broke their staring match. ”I did not come here to lose my appetite from your childish behaviour.” He continued as he focused his gaze on all three, especially Teela and Solal and carefully placed his hands on the table. I could hear a quiet sigh escape his mouth and then shifted his gaze on Lex. 

”Now, I suppose it is time to ask a few questions for the human.” Kaamon said more calmly as Lex slowly turned his head to look at his direction with a confused expression. 

“Questions?” Lex asked and glanced to my direction. I could only give him a reassuring smile, that nothing bad was going to happen. 

”Yes, you are in our planet. I would like to know a few things about your situation, if you do not mind.” Kaamon’s voice was low, enough for us close to him to hear.

It took a short while for Lex to respond as he was staring at Kaamon, probably registering what he just said and then nodded his head quickly.

”Yeah uh, I am fine with that. Sir.” 

Kaamon nodded slowly and clasped his hands together again. I could see Lex was eyeing at my father’s burned right hand. “How did you get here?” He asked, once again with a low voice and studied Lex as he tried to answer the question.

”Um, well I was in the jet and found this planet at random.” 

”Why were you in the jet?” My father asked, not changing his tone or facial expression at all. I only stayed silent and listened intently on the conversation. I know Teela did the same thing. 

”I…” Lex began to speak but paused and looked down at the table, with a more saddened expression than before. ”I had a crew and a spaceship. We…um” He paused again and took a silent breath. I carefully placed a hand on his shoulder without realizing it and he continued to speak. 

”Something very bad happened that required us to abandon the ship. That’s how I got the jet and that’s how I found myself here.” 

”What happened?” asked my father, a question I wondered about as well. 

Silence. The workers had gone out of the hall to continue with their tasks and left us alone on the table. Lex was quiet and so were everyone else, even Solal. 

”I’d like to go to the bathroom, if that’s fine with you.” Lex spoke softly, facing away from us. He seemed upset which concerned me.

My father let our a sharp exhale through his nose, noticeably irritated and leaned back on the chair. ”Yes, you may leave.” He answered as he swayed with his hand towards to the open doors. 

Lex thanked us for the breakfast and moved up from the chair, silently walking out of the hall. I watched the whole process occur with my concern increasing. I then heard Teela speak up.

”He definitely does not know where the bathrooms are. You should go after him, Daavit.” She said nonchalantly and rose from the table to walk out. 

”I suppose you are right.” I did the same thing and got up from my position and excused myself out from the hall. 

* * *

It wasn’t a difficult task finding him. As Teela said, I never showed him the bathrooms, so he wouldn’t be there. Instead I went back to my bedroom and found Lex sitting on the bed with his back facing me. He heard the door creak when I slowly shut it and immediately turned to look at who had entered. When he realized it was me, I could see him calm down.

”Ah, hi Daavit.” His voice was low and sounded upset. 

I took silent steps to the other side of the bed and stood next to him with arms hidden behind my back. 

”May I sit?” I asked and gestured with a hand towards the spot next to Lex. He stared up at me with those brown eyes and nodded slowly. I lowered myself to the bed and moved my tail out of the way to not accidentally sit on it. 

We didn’t speak at all, only sitting in the comfortable silence between us. We were facing the larger windows leading out to the balcony and scanned the view from the bed. At least, that’s what I was doing.

_ ’Do you feel like talking about it?’ _

I switched to using telepathy, feeling it would be easier to communicate that way and continued staring at the windows. The sun was fully out with few clouds nearby to hide it, indicating that today will be quite hot. Not that it would bother me much as we were well adapted to the heat. 

_ ’Not really.’ _ I heard Lex speak and shake his head slightly. _ ’I remembered some things I didn’t want to remember.’ _

_ ’It does not sound like anything fun happened.’ _

A small, somewhat melancholic chuckle came from Lex.

_ ’Yeah…’ _

I had no idea how these conversations worked or how to even comfort Lex. Though, thinking back to his sleep talking, I kind of had an idea of what the unfortunate situation was but I needed confirmation.

I moved my attention away from the window and watched Lex. _ ’Do you miss your friend?’ _I asked as his head faced down with his shoulders slumped. 

_ ’Yes. Very much.’ _ His voice was almost a whisper in my mind. _ ’I wish I could go back in time and… tell him that I am sorry. I didn’t mean to say those things to him.’ _

_ ’I am sure he would understand if he was alive right now.’ _ I said, trying to comfort Lex. He closed his eyes and furrowed his brows tight. 

_ ’I don’t know if he could forgive me. Not after everything that had happened up until the crash.’ _

I could hear the guilt of Thomas’ death coming from his voice. It was the reason for the nightmares haunting him every time he sleeps and would continue to do so if he couldn’t find peace soon. 

_ ’Were you two best friends?’ _

A nod. He told me they were best friends since the start of their mission, the long training sessions and lectures gave them the opportunity to bond. Since both were pilots it made it even easier for them to become friends compared to a pilot being friends with a scientist or a medic. I asked him about the mission. 

_ ‘Our mission was basically space exploration. The Hyperion Space centre, the place we worked at, collected a team of capable people to be sent up in space and investigate potential Earth-like planets the telescopes found.’ _ He explained the mission this ‘Hyperion Space Center’ made them do. _ ‘It went well. We found the planets documented on our systems and took a look at them. The planets didn’t have anything that indicates complex life but they had the potential for it, as the scientists had told me.’ _

I was listening intently to Lex’s description of the ‘Earth-like’ planets and different solar systems they had visited. It sounded incredible that Lex had to experience the wonders of the vast space and the many undiscovered planets out there. It was only by chance that Lex had found our planet and also found complex life like him. I had always known there were planets out there with life, the information coming from Vulban but only until now I could finally see one. 

_ ‘After we had swept through every planet on the list, we decided to finally return home after five years out there.’ _ Lex continued and I felt my eyes widen in shock. They were out there for _ five _ years? Five years floating around in space, not seeing any family or friends? The thought of not being on home with my family made me feel somewhat anxious. 

_ ‘Five years?’ _ I managed to ask him, still with a shocked look on my face. 

Lex nodded calmly. _ ‘Yeah, five years. It was difficult but we eventually grew used to each other’s company. But… everyone were so excited to get home.’ _ I could see his jaw clench tightly and stared at the windows in front of us. _ ‘I was so excited to finally have a break and see my cat again.’ _

I narrowed my eyes slightly. _ ‘And yet, you are here.’ _ I was watching his face slowly change to sadness, realizing he was nowhere near his home planet, his cat or friends. I immediately regretted saying it. _ ‘I-I am so sorry, I should not have said that.’ _

He shook his head fast and then looked up at me with a smile. _‘It’s fine, it’s fine… I just…’ _ Lex went quiet and averted his eyes away from me. I was unsure if giving him a pat would be a good idea. Lex didn’t say anything. I assumed he was thinking as it took a moment for him to respond. 

_ ‘You still want to know what happened to our ship?’ _ He suddenly asked and I stared at him, saying yes, of course. He just turned his gaze back to me. _ ‘Look into my memories.’ _

I blinked, confused at the sudden suggestion Lex gave me. _ ‘Look into your memories? I thought you didn’t want me to invade your mind.’ _

_ ‘That was when I had a headache and didn’t trust you. I just don’t feel like describing what happened right now. I think it’s better for you to see it yourself.’ _ He explained and I felt a wide smile build up in my face. I’m trusted enough to see one memory! _ ‘But please, don’t tell anyone about it afterwards.’ _

I nodded and promised Lex that what I was about to see, I would keep it a secret. He closed his eyes waiting for me to initiate. I lifted both my hands to place them around his head with only my fingertips touching his soft hair and scalp, careful not to accidentally hurt him with my claws.

_ ‘It might feel uncomfortable at first but then you will be okay once I’ve accessed your memory.’ _

Lex nodded slightly. I went ahead to close my eyes and focused my powers to his brain. It wasn’t difficult finding the memory as he was already thinking about it. I took a deep breath and went ahead into the memory, the reality around me shifting inwards and slowly became dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me longer than I intended to be honest. I was stuck in some parts but I managed to solve them and finish it. This is probably the longest chapter I have written so far and I didn't do that on purpose! It just happened :)c
> 
> Anyway, this is from Daavit's pov! Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Note: in case anyone was wondering, this is an original story. the fandom and stuff does not exist but I had to add it as a fandom lol  
and yes why write it here? cus i like ao3 and the structure it already has. i might write something actually fandom related in the future but idk. we shall see


	6. A Trip Through The Memory

I opened my eyes to find myself standing in a relatively warm and furnitured room. The walls were dull blue with lighter coloured lines going horizontally across the room and the closed door. The ceiling had bright light illuminating the entire room. There were several beds placed differently next to the large windows showing the vast space around what I think was the spaceship. I slowly moved forward towards an empty bed positioned closest to me and stared out the windows in awe. It was incredible! The stars were so many and covered everything in my field of vision. Everything was dotted in stars, similar to Lex’s freckles. That was probably a bad comparison but that’s what came in my mind first. It was still beautiful and also very, very terrifying. For them to have been up here for five years… I had no idea how lonely it could possibly get.

Something twinkled below me and I looked down at the bed to see a silvery necklace placed on top of a book on the bed. I reached down to pick it up by the loose piece and took a close look at it. There was text inscribed on the metal but I couldn’t understand it. I briefly translated the letters to better know what it was saying.

Frankie Wilson. It must be a person’s name.

I returned the letters back to normal and placed it down on the book. The book caught my attention for a moment as I noticed the cover used on it and was about to pick it up when the door suddenly opened. I quickly turned my head around to see a familiar face entering the room in a hurry. It was Thomas. The man I had buried near the beach. His black hair more proper and fixed than the way I had found it. He was wearing the same non-armoured suit I had seen Lex wear while holding onto something in his left hand and another suit on his right. I watched him walk up to a bed on the far right corner of the room and flung the suit over to the person sleeping.

“Wake up, Lex! You’ve slept for 12 hours.” Thomas spoke loudly and leaned over to Lex who turned his head to glare at his smirking friend above.

“Why is your voice so damn loud?” I heard him talk as he fully turned his body to my direction and covered himself with the blanket up to his head. “Just five more minutes.”

Thomas placed his hands on his hips and shook his head at his friend. Then he moved forward and grabbed on the bottom of the blanket and pulled it off Lex entirely. Lex sat up, hair messy and face clearly annoyed at Thomas forcing him to wake up. Thomas held the blanket in one hand and placed the other on his hip, including with the strange thing clutched to his hand.

“Get up. You need breakfast.” He said and threw the blanket back to Lex who caught it and put down next to him. “And there are some things I want to show you when you are ready.” Then he walked out of the room and left Lex to wake himself up.

I heard him sigh and get up from the bed, taking the suit Thomas brought in. He was wearing a shirt with a blue figure on it and the same clothing with the white waistband. Lex took off his shirt and threw it over to the bed and began putting on the suit, starting with the legs and up. I turned my attention to his bed and the small night table next to it. The same silvery necklace was visible on the table. I went to pick it up and read the letters, translating it first of course.

Lex Russell.

I smiled, now knowing his full name and placed it back down. A framed picture was on the table as well as several other pictures stacked above each other. I carefully picked it up and analysed the picture. It was a picture of a family, seemingly a mother and father along with a little child in the middle. They were standing next to a lake, smiling brightly at whatever technology took the image. I figured the child was Lex, as they were freckled and had the same brown hair. I found myself smiling at the picture. It was a lovely image of a happy family. A family Lex didn’t mention about. I placed the picture back on the table and picked up the stack of photos.

They were photos of him growing up but they stopped at a point where Lex became an adult. The last photo showed him gently hugging a fluffy creature. It must be this cat, Tara, he had mentioned about before. The cat was black with white patches on its face. It seemed to be very happy in Lex’s arms. It was an adorable picture. The sound of the door opening again caught my attention as I turned to see Lex walking out of the room. I placed the pictures down on the night table and followed after him, out from the room and into a small hallway.

The walls were coloured the same as the room I had exited and on my right side were large windows stretching all the way to another door. Just like the windows in the bedroom, I could look into the darkness outside. A bright coloured planet caught my attention as I peered out in curiosity. It was a distance away from the ship, enough for me to see the whole planet but also close enough to see details on the purple-orange surface. Massive clouds spiraled around the planet ever so slowly but with unstoppable fury. Turning away from the windows I noticed a door to my left with a small rectangular sign next to it. It translated to bathroom.

Suddenly the door in front of me opened and startled, I jumped back. I saw a woman step out from the bathroom with a towel around her head and wearing partially wet clothing. She didn’t react to me standing there but instead walked to the direction of the bedroom and went inside. It’s a memory after all and people appearing in memories cannot be interacted with. I ignored the woman and decided to walk through the door Lex had gone through and into a more spaced room than the bedroom. It had a large door to my right marked with red letters and yellow lines going vertically across the door. To my left there was a large oval table with smoothly shaped chairs surrounding the table. A few of the chairs were occupied with people eating food and discussing something. I could spot Lex sitting with them, eating something square shaped. I walked towards the table and observed more of the room. There were several smaller doors, similar to the ones I had gone through, leading to somewhere I didn’t know. A few armoured suits were placed against a wall, some white and some were black with seemingly thicker armour. A man was standing over a metallic counter, washing something and whistling loudly. I noticed his clothing was much different compared to Lex’s and the others sitting around the table. It was black and definitely thicker as well, with him wearing baggy pants over the suit. Strange fashion sense but interesting nonetheless. Though… why was he wearing different clothes? Was he a higher rank than the others? I had a lot of questions but knew there was no way of communicating with them here. I ended up standing next to Lex and listened in to their conversations.

“Man, I can’t wait to get home!” A dark skinned man said loudly as he stretched his arms up in the air and put them behind his head. “I wish this ship could go faster so I can see my little girl again.”

“It is already going fast, just not lightning speed. You just need patience.” A woman with red hair responded casually, sitting across the table in front of the man. She was holding a cup containing a dark liquid and took a sip from it. She was looking down at a rectangular board, the same one Thomas held in his hand, and tapped on the screen with her free hand.

The man chuckled and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table and looked at the woman. “And who are you looking forward to seeing again? You haven’t said anything about that.”

The woman glanced up from her reading and stared at the man, shrugging. “My bed.” She said in a sarcastic, yet serious tone. The man laughed.

“That is something I think everyone could agree on.” Lex spoke with a mouthful and quickly swallowed. “I personally want to see my cat.” He said and took another bite of his food.

The man with the baggy pants who was whistling had stopped to ask Lex with a strange accent. “Why do you care so much for a cat?”

Lex blinked at the question. “Because she is like my best friend and I love my cat?” He asked, confused and with furrowed brows. “It’s the same thing as caring for a dog or bunny or any other animal that can be pets. Why would it be a difference for cats?”

“Just wondered.” The man shrugged and continued with his whistling. He walked away from the table and vanished as he walked through one of the doors. Lex turned to stare at the two people sitting around the table with a puzzled look and they could only shrug in response.

”Okaaaay…” Lex said and continued to eat his food as the others began talking about something else.

”Where are the others, Ellie?” The man asked.

”They are checking on the analyses of the planets we’ve been on and some strange anomaly in space.” The woman, Ellie, spoke as she tapped on the board quickly.

”Anomaly?” The man asked, interested in what she was going to show him. She picked up the board and flipped the screen to show them both. I titled my head to look at it as well.

”Well, not exactly an anomaly but the same thing has been in every picture we have taken. Can you see it?” Ellie explained as she let them have a look.

It was a picture taken at a certain spot they must have been on before. The picture was showing a large yellow star, with pure darkness surrounding the object. It almost felt like staring into an eye.

Lex squinted his eyes to scan the image more thoroughly as the other man rubbed his chin in thought. I took a better look into it, looking at the star itself, the corners of the image and then around the star. There it was. Small but there it was, at the bottom of the star, a part of it warped and a shadowy object could be spotted. From what I could see on the picture, the object had a pointy top that widened at the base and decorated with several sharpened extensions at the base. It seemed familiar somehow?

”Wait..” The man said as he pressed his thumb and index finger on the screen and zoomed in on the object. ”Are you sure it’s not another asteroid? It looks very absurd yes, but that could be a possibility?”

”We’ve looked into it. It’s completely smooth and the jagged edges are unnatural for an asteroid. And again, it has shown up in several other pictures from our last three spots. There is nothing about it that could indicate it’s an asteroid… It could be something alien.” Ellie’s voice had completely changed from calm to worrying. I could see that she was antsy about the strange object in the background of their pictures.

Lex and the man were completely silent, exchanging concerned glances to each other. Ellie brought forth another picture, showing the object but was much closer and clearer this time.

”What the hell is that?” The man blurted out.

”It… looks like a spacecraft?” Lex asked and stared at Ellie in shock.

”It has to be a joke, no way.” The man said and forcibly got up from the chair. ”I am going to take a shower. See you later.” And he walked away from the table to the direction of the room I’ve started at.

Lex nodded. ”See ya, Michael.”

Ellie sighed and glanced at Lex, who had returned to examine the pictures closely. ”I shouldn’t have shown you guys those pictures.” She said as she grabbed the board away from him and propped it under her arm. Lex stared at her bewildered at what she was doing.

”Why do you think that?” He asked, annoyed at the rude action.

”It’s… it’s supposed to be a secret. Sorry, but I have to go now.” She said and quickly moved up from the chair and away from Lex.

”Ellie, wait!” He got up from his seat and extended an arm out to stop her in her tracks. ”Why are you keeping this a secret from everyone else? If that ’anomaly’ is actually something alien then we have to get away from it as soon as possible.”

Ellie was silent for a moment before pulling her arm away from Lex’s grasp. ”There is no need to make everyone worry about it. Besides, it’s too far away from us to even do anything.”

”Dude, even if it’s far away, it has been following us the whole time! Don’t you think that’s concerning enough to be brought up with everyone?” Lex’s face was visibly getting angrier the more this went on. I found her logic to be strange as well. No sane person would hide important information from their fellow people.

”Listen Lex, you don’t need to tell me what to do. I deem it harmless for now and unless it actually does something, which it hasn’t for like a year now by the way, then we will tell everyone about it.”

”I’m sorry, but that’s stupid.” He said and folded his arms together. ”And you might have jinxed it now as well, who knows if it will get to us today.”

“Really? Are you twelve?” Ellie gave Lex a condescending look but he only waved his hand at her.

“Yeah, and this twelve year old thinks you are an absolute idiot.” He said as he pointed a finger at Ellie. “By not telling anyone about it, you are risking everyone's lives including your own. Do you know what that means?”

They stared at each other for an uncomfortably long moment, while I turned my head side to side waiting for something or someone to start talking again. I wasn’t even sure why they were arguing to begin with but from what I could see, it wasn’t the first time they had argued either. Ellie’s face was growing red from anger and I spotted her fist clenching together tightly. Lex noticed and shifted his position to face her directly and raised his hands slightly.

“Ellie, you have to tell everyone.” He said more calmly this time. “Please.”

She didn’t respond but her facial expressions changed to a softer, less irritated one and looked away. She looked even more antsy than before and it was giving off suspicious signals to me. The ambient sounds of the ship swallowed the silence as they stood there once again, not moving or uttering a word. Lex then slowly lowered his hands as his chest contracted to let out a small sigh.

“If you are not going to do it then I will do it instead-”

“No! I’m doing it. You don’t know anything about it except for its existence!” Ellie said loudly and cut him off before he could continue. Lex quirked an eyebrow and I felt myself do the same at what she had said at the end.

“And you know more about it?” He spoke as he tilted his head and took a step closer to her. “Ellie, are you hiding something from the rest of us?”

Ellie quickly shut her mouth and once again turned around to walk out from the room. Lex called out for her again and stepped forward to grab her arm but she let go of the board in her hand, took a hold of and twisted his arm around to his back and shoved him against the table. She then drew out a hidden small blade from her boot and pointed it towards his throat. I blinked at the scene in front of me, shocked at what was happening. Lex had the same expression as I did as he fixed his gaze on the blade touching his neck.

“Wh- what-” He stammered and grunted in pain at the increased pressure put on his arm. “Ellie, what are you doing!?”

“You talked too much! You should have left me alone and now I can’t escape from this blasted metal can because of you. God, playing pretend for five years was driving me _insane_.” She muttered angrily in his ear and pressed the tip of the blade closer at his skin. He leaned his head away from the blade and glanced at Ellie behind him.

“What the fuck are you on about!” He yelled at her, shuffling his shoulders around but was met with more pressure on his arm.

“You were right about us in danger. I knew it all along and I thought, maybe I could get out of here before it happens and safely get back to Earth, present the data and live happily ever after by myself.” She snarled at him.

“...And leave us all to die?” Lex tried to turn around and look at her but the pressure put on his back made it not easy.

“They won’t care, as long as I bring back the data then everything will be alright. You guys will be well remembered for your service.” Her smiled was wide and showed off her teeth menacingly, as she pressed the blade further until his skin began to draw blood. I was starting to wonder if she actually had gone insane.

The doors leading to another room suddenly slid open and out appeared Thomas in a panic. “Lex! You have to see this now- Ellie?” He stopped his movements as he spotted the two.

Ellie had changed her focus to Thomas and softened her grip on his arm in which Lex moved his upper body upwards, shoving her off his back and hit her on the face with his elbow when he rapidly turned around. As she fell to the floor, Lex went to hold her down, pinning her arms behind her back and pressing down on her lower back with his knee. She squirmed under his grip and began screaming at Lex to release her but he didn’t budge. I could see blood dripping down from her nose and onto the metal floor. I moved to rub my own nose from watching that happen. Ouch.

“Hey, you are not getting away after just trying to _kill_ me!” He hissed at her.

Thomas quickly jogged up to them and picked up the blade Ellie dropped and stared at it for a moment before looking over to them. “Can someone explain what the hell is going on?”

“Ask her.” Lex replied with anger in his voice as he continued to press down on the squirming Ellie to make her stop.

“It’s too late.” Ellie said as she stopped squirming and turned her head around, her eyes intense. “They are coming.”

“They?” Both asked in unison.

Ellie rolled her eyes. “The aliens, you idiots. They are on their way to kill us all because we are on their territory.” She explained and squirmed once again trying to escape Lex’s grip. “Let me go!”

“How the hell do you know so much these aliens!”

“That’s not important now.” Thomas interrupted the conversation and placed a hand on Lex’s shoulder. “What she is saying is true, we have to prepare for impact because whatever is on the radar right now, it is coming in our direction. That’s what I have been trying to tell you about, Lex.”

I heard Lex sigh in frustration. “Inform everyone to get ready for impact.” Lex ordered as he forcefully brought Ellie up from the floor, holding onto her arms and pushed her towards the table. “Sit.” She did as she was told and sat down on the chair.

I watched Thomas reach his hand towards his earpiece and pressed it. He then began speaking into the earpiece and walked off after Lex gestured his hands towards Ellie’s hands. He returned a moment after with something silvery and handed it to Lex, who put them around Ellie’s wrists.

“I informed everyone about the object. Hopefully they are changing to their suits.” Thomas told Lex and glanced to Ellie. “I also told them about Ellie and chief is on her way to deal with her.”

Lex watched Ellie as well however, with an angry look rather than Thomas’ bewildered one. I was just as confused as Thomas was but I could understand Lex’s anger. Ellie didn’t utter a word and focused her eyes on the table in front of her. Thomas noticed and patted Lex on the shoulder.

“We should prepare too.” Thomas said with a lowered voice and turned around to head back inside the room he had been in. Lex only nodded and went to follow Thomas but paused halfway.

“Did you ever care about any of us?” He asked as he stared forward and waited for her answer. She snorted and shook her head.

“No, it wasn’t my mission.” Her gaze shifted to Lex. “Just had to pretend and collect everything needed.”

I found myself getting more uncomfortable watching Ellie’s face turn to a hateful scowl. I couldn’t see anything that would indicate that she cared about her fellow humans at all. She was even ready to let them all die to ensure her own safety. I felt disgusted by that. Lex never mentioned anything about Ellie to me but I think I know now why.

“Who _are_ you?” He asked but Ellie didn’t answer his question. He took a step closer. “What data were you collecting?” He asked more questions but she was still as silent. Lex was about to ask her more but was interrupted by a door opening. Both quickly looked at whoever entered the room. It was a large woman wearing a black suit along with two more people behind her, both suited up as well and faces hidden behind their visors.

“I will take over from now, Lex. You should suit up.” The woman ordered and Lex gave her a quick nod and without a question walked off into the room Thomas went to. I followed after him into the new area.

It was smaller than the strange kitchen and had very large windows covering at the front of the area and looking out into the starry space. There on the two seats sat Thomas, staring directly at a large transparent screen in front of him. He was wearing the white armoured suit as Lex’s, though without the helmet on as it was placed next to his feet on the metallic floor.

Without looking at whoever entered the room he spoke calmly. “We have e-minus five minutes to ready up before it arrives. You took your time out there.”

“Five? How fast is that damn thing?” Lex asked in shock and immediately moved to the side of the room, pressing on the buttons situated on the wall. The wall opened up to reveal the white armour suit propped up and ready to be used.

“Very fast. The jets are almost completely powered up though and we can start using them now if everyone are done.” Thomas explained quickly and poked around on the blue screen, small figures and dots showing up as well as the jet itself. I could sense he was stressed about the escalation of this situation they were in. “Ours is ready.” He said and moved the figure away from the screen but suddenly paused his hands. I saw what he saw.

“That’s good. What about the others?” Lex’s slightly muffled voice was heard and I glanced to see him wearing the suit with the helmet on. He hadn’t seen it yet.

I slowly backed away from Thomas’ side. I struggled to keep my breathing steady but how could I when it was right there? The ship… was right in front of us. I knew that ship. I knew what was inside it.

_The Xic Zuri._

I felt the panic creeping up from deep inside my mind, no matter how hard I tried to calm myself. The view around me started to get blurry along with black splotches forming and increasing in size. Lex’s worried voice from behind grew more and more distorted and further away. _I can’t breathe. I have to leave before I hurt his mind! _ yelled to myself and tried to focus on escaping. The black spots grew large enough to cover almost everything in my field of vision. The last thing I saw was Lex running forward and pull Thomas away from the controls as the ship’s front speared through the windows and the metal with ease.

* * *

I cracked open an eye and looked around me. Everything was back to normal and we were on the same sitting position before I had entered Lex’s mind. I exhaled a long sigh, trying to find words to say to him but I could only sit there and look down at my lap. I wasn’t alright. What I had seen awakened my repressed emotions of that day the Xic Zuri attacked our world. It… wasn’t just a coincidence that the same thing happened to Lex. I tilted my head down to Lex, who stared back at me with concerned eyes.

“Hey. Are you alright, Daavit?” I heard Lex ask beside me.

“I am fine… what happened?” I asked as I pressed a hand against my forehead, feeling dizzy from the mental experience.

“You pretty much had a panic attack, I think? And then you blacked out.” He began explaining and gestured directed at me. “While sitting like this. It was worrisome to say the least.” He continued and watched me closely.

“Ah, I apologize for that.” I smiled sadly, feeling bad for worrying Lex. He only shook his head.

“Don’t be. It wasn’t under your control.” His voice was reassuring. “Are you sure you are alright? You seem dizzy.” He then asked and placed a hand on my shoulder.

I rubbed my forehead for a moment, the dizziness still lingering on and spreading through my skull. Lex wasn’t wrong about that. I have been inside people’s minds for long time spans but what had affected my focus was the ship. Teela would be disappointed to find out that I lost my focus so quickly from a single object in a memory. I wonder if she would even understand why I lost my focus to begin with. I hoped she would.

“I just need water.” I said, feeling suddenly dehydrated and shifted my body to get up from the bed but Lex moved faster and told me to stay on the bed. I watched him walk over to his backpack and pull out a water bottle. “Lex, you do not need to-” I wanted to protest but he didn’t listen and threw the bottle at my direction. I quickly caught it with an extended arm and brought it close to my face.

“Nonsense. Just drink it up.”

“What about you? You spent a lot of time to find water.” I pointed out the moment where Lex had found the small lake to fill up the empty bottles with. It would be a waste to give it to me instead of keeping it for himself when he needs it the most during this warm climate.

He smiled and waved his hand around. “I’ll be fine, I can always find a water source to get new water. You certainly need that one more than I do right now.”

I didn’t say anything else and opened the lid, remembering from watching Lex opening one up out there, and brought it up to my lips to take big gulps of water. The water had a taste that was much different than the water we have here. It had a smooth taste with it while ours had an ‘earthy’ taste. It wasn’t a bad taste though. I lowered the bottle and looked over to see Lex waiting for me to finish up. It was pretty much emptied now so I threw it back to Lex. He raised both of his arms and caught it rather clumsily, almost dropping it behind him but had a firm grip around the short neck of the bottle. I chuckled slightly.

“Nice catch.” I smirked, watching him reply with his hand and thumb up in the air and shoved the now empty bottle back into the backpack.

“Now that we are done with that.” He said as he casually returned to the bed and standing next to me. “What did you see that made you react like that?”

I sighed to myself, remembering the outline and the black colour of the gigantic flying metal. “The ship.”

The response made Lex’s eyes twinkle in interest.  
“What about it?” He asked. I awkwardly rubbed my neck and took a deep breath.

“18 years ago, we were attacked by the same creatures that attacked your crew. I was only 8 years old when it happened. They are called the ‘Xic Zuri’ here. I am not sure what others call them or if there even are others that have encountered them and survived. Except for you of course.” I looked up to face Lex. His eyes were wide and understandably troubled at what I was telling him. “We thought they left us alone forever after that event but now… I don’t think that’s the case.”

“Are you saying they will return?”

I shook my head slowly, unsure about what to do next. “We don’t know for sure… unless...” I mumbled and thought back to the memory again. “Lex.. when did the attack on your ship occur?” I asked out loud, hoping the answer would be somewhat good news.

Lex scratched the side of his head thoughtfully. “Uh.. Without Star keeping track of everything right now, I would guess almost two weeks ago. Why?”

Oh no. No, no no. “That means they are still around. They never left us entirely alone, that’s what the Ellie woman meant by you being in their territory.” I mumbled as I placed my head onto the palm of my hand. “This was worse than I expected.”

“Oh boy..” He whispered under his breath. “I would’ve felt much better if I didn’t ever have to see them again. I don’t think I would react accordingly.”

I had to agree on that. We were prepared to react on what we have been taught by the elite warriors; calm and tactical, but I wasn’t sure if I could do that if a zuri suddenly showed up in front of me. Teela might do it wonderfully as she was 17 at that time and fought them off easily.

“I know I promised not to tell anyone but I have to inform my father about the Xic Zuri. We could still be in danger..” I sighed again and closed my eyes briefly. “And hope that Vulban will help us out this time.”

Lex nodded slowly, not saying anything else. I got up from the bed and stumbled slightly forward from my leg going numb.

“Will you be alright? You probably need to rest first.” Lex asked and reached forward with his arms stretched out, anticipating a fall but I managed to keep my balance and smiled.

“I will be okay, don’t worry. I’m only going to tell my father about the Xic Zuri and nothing else. It’s more important than rest.” I said and began walking towards the door. Well, more like limping than walking.

“Daavit…” Before he could protest, I rose my thumb up like he did and with a wide smile. Lex snorted.

“I will be back soon, I promise. You can look through more of my books and go to the balcony if you would like to.” I said and opened the door in front of me to walk out when I heard him call out from behind.

“Sure. Don’t fall down the stairs though!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a long time to even finish up and I am sorry about it. I've been busy with uni exams and stress but I started with it as soon as winter break began. I wish I would've completed it earlier but having extra time to think through it was better than stress writing. 
> 
> Anyway, here is a late Christmas gift and an early New Year's gift, I guess. Enjoy :>


	7. Planning

As Daavit had walked out of his bedroom, I decided to explore more of his neatly arranged books out of interest and as a way for me to distract myself from the memories I had to see again. I didn’t expect him to even recognise those… things that had attacked us up there. Actually, I expected none of this outcome and my brain still had so many questions to ask Daavit about the other aliens. 

While waiting for his return, I could feed my curiosity. I walked over to the bookcase and picked out the first random book that caught my interest. It was thicker than the others I’d seen and quite heavy. I looked around for some place to sit on but saw none in the room, instead I spotted a table and a chair outside on the balcony. The sun was still up and shining bright through the closed glass windows and the curtains which meant enough light to read. 

“I suppose getting a little bit of sunlight wouldn’t hurt either.” I mumbled to myself and walked up to the balcony doors. There was a pair of simple handles on each door. I was glad that this society didn't have anything built too overly complex for me to get a headache over and reached out to grab onto one handle and pushed it. However, my hand couldn't move any further forward as it wouldn’t budge open. Confused, I pushed again and it only shook in unison with my hands. I glared at the door, took a small breath and casually pulled it back instead. It opened. _ Oh_. I felt blood quickly rush to my face and stepped out to the warm balcony. Thank God, no one was there to watch me embarrass myself.

I immediately felt the warm rays of sunlight hit my visible bare skin and moved the book to cover myself from the sun. 

“If only I had sunscreen with me.” I sighed to myself and walked over to the empty chair and sat down. It was warm to the touch, same with the table as they have been outside the whole time. Well, at least it wouldn’t be uncomfortable to my butt. I placed the book on the table and flipped it open to the first page. There was text at the beginning that I couldn’t understand at all and moved on to the next page. There was more text but along with a drawing of a strange blue creature. Something about it was familiar. The rows of razor sharp, shark-like teeth and large wide eyes. Seeing it made me remember back to when I was attacked by the creatures at night and mostly saw the eyes and teeth shimmer in the darkness. I felt myself shudder at the thought of encountering one of them again. Last time was a close enough encounter for me! 

My hand flipped to the next page and to a creature I didn’t recognise at all. It was deer-like in body structure with long legs but had strange horns going from its nose to the base of its head. It had several toes as well as a longer pendulum tail. Next page. Nabir! Well, not Nabir herself but it showed a drawing of her species. Argathi was it? I smiled to myself and moved to another page. A fluffy creature I recognise somewhat. It had large ears and a long thick tail with long fingers. It reminded me of a squirrel but more alien. Hopefully it was not as crazy as a squirrel as well. 

Next! I flipped to the next page and blinked. “What the hell?” I asked out loud to myself as I squinted my eyes, staring at the drawing. The drawing depicted a purple creature that lacked limbs and eyes from what I could observe. It...resembled a worm? Just a much chunkier one. I wasn’t sure what to even think about it and decided to flip to the next page. Another creature similar to the worm before but with two mouths and several eyes visible. It didn’t look very pleasant at all. Next creature; same thing but with a different appearance. _Were they different species of the same thing?_ I wondered to myself and scanned each drawing closely. One of the worms had split mouths for some reason, which I was sure was being explained in the text but again, I didn't know the language. I wished I was able to read the text so I could find out more about the creatures living here. All I could do at this point was to ask Daavit about them instead. The several pictures ahead only showed different worms with unique appearances and after that the drawing went back to showing different creatures in many colours and shapes. It was amazing how diverse the wild life on this planet was! And I haven't seen a fraction of them. 

I wasn’t sure how long I spent looking through the book of drawings but I eventually got distracted by a faint noise in the background. I slowly closed the book and listened to my surroundings.

“Mroo!” I heard coming from below and I pushed myself up from the chair to the edge of the balcony. Looking down I spotted Nabir staring up at the balcony and calling. I felt my mouth widen in happiness at seeing her again and I waved to her from below.

“Hey girl! What are you doing down there?” I yelled down to her and she responded with the same sounds. 

“Is it something important?” I asked her and watched Nabir trot in a circle while keeping her gaze on me. Did she want me to get down? 

She then trotted a distance away from the balcony, stopped her tracks and turned around to face the balcony. I could only stand there and silently watch what she was up to. She stood there for a while, sometimes making circles around herself and kicking up dust. I contemplated going down there but then she began sprinting at full speed towards the building. My legs automatically backed away, anticipating something that would happen next. Then she appeared in full view having leaped up the whole way, latching onto the ledge of the balcony with her dewclaws and then hopped in. I almost fell backwards when she walked up to me and shoved her head to my chest for scratches. 

“Woah! Did you just_ jump _ up to the balcony?” I asked, shocked at what I had just seen and felt more force from Nabir’s head apply to my chest. If she pushed me again, I would definitely fall over. “Okay, okay you will get your scratches.” I smiled and scratched around her jaws. She let out a pleased sound and sat down on the floor. 

“Haha, yeah I missed you too, girl.” I chuckled and patted her on the side of her neck, making sure as to not touch the spines and stab myself on the fingers again. That’s when I noticed a strange small bag strapped around her neck. 

“What’s this?” My hands moved to loosen the strap and peeled the bag off of Nabir’s neck. I examined the bag and carefully opened it up, only to see a folded piece of paper. I glanced to Nabir, who watched me in silence and tilted her head. The paper must be important and could be for Daavit as well if it was strapped around Nabir's neck. I went inside the room and placed it on the bed for him to see when he returned. I walked back outside to the balcony and placed my hands on my hips, smiling to Nabir on the floor. 

“Well, I guess all we can do is wait for the prince to return huh?” I said as I moved over to grab the book from the table and sat down next to Nabir. “Let’s look through the book! I’m bored to death.” 

“Mroo.” 

* * *

”I see you have had company while I was away.” I heard Daavit’s voice from above us and craned my neck to look at him. The sun was blinding me so I had to use the book as a cover. He was patting Nabir gently on her head.

”Yeah and you took an awfully long time to get back. What happened?” I asked as I watched him crouch down to our level and shake his head. 

”Nothing happened. I just had to explain to my father a few times so he would believe me and accompanied him when he had to speak to Nova about it.” Daavit explained and let out a small sigh. ”There will be a meeting here in a few days, probably three, to discuss the matter further.”

I leaned back on Nabir’s side and observed Daavit as he lowered his voice and muttered something to Nabir in his language. He received a lick on his cheek from Nabir and chuckled, letting her do it until she stopped on her own. He wiped the saliva off of his skin and shifted his position to sit on the floor, curling his tail close to his thigh. 

”Will you be in the meeting?” I asked, breaking the short silence between us. Would the meeting even help solve this new problem? There was nothing useful for me to do to help them after all and I doubt they would need help from me. No one in the city trusted the strange outworlder that suddenly appeared here. Except for Daavit, which I was thankful for. Without him, I would have most certainly died to the elements or to my injuries.

”Yes. I have to provide the information to Nova.” He replied and turned his head to look directly at me. ”It might get boring but I cannot skip it. You might have to join in as well because I got it from you.” 

I nodded, understanding the reasoning. Not useless afterall. ”Also who is Nova?” I asked, curious about the new stranger. 

”Nova is the leader of Vulban. She has the technology to track the area in our solar system after Xic Zuri ships. So I am guessing that my father will try to ask for a collaboration with the tech she has.” He explained while scratching under Nabir’s chin. 

That explained why his father contacted her first. If she possessed tech that could be useful for everyone to keep track of their atmosphere, then why not get that same tech too? Deep in my mind I wondered if they had tech that would allow me to contact the base or someone else that survived the attack. I wasn’t sure if anyone actually survived it as we had to get to the jet immediately and didn’t have time to check for anyone’s safety. I remembered the screams of the soldiers that stayed behind to give us more time to escape and fight those creatures. Screams from both human and alien. Mixed in with rapid gun fire and the sounds of screeching metal ringing in my ears. Then the silence as we escaped the ship. 

“Lex?” Daavit’s calm and gentle voice vibrated through my ears and breaking me away from my trance of thoughts. I blinked and turned to face him. His expression showed concern and immediately I felt bad from getting distracted again. 

“Yes?” I said with a small smile. 

“Were you thinking about something?” He asked.

I nodded. He watched me closely, probably trying to figure out what bothered me but I think he knew already what was occupying my mind. 

“I am sorry you had to see it all.” He said, expressing sympathy in his voice.

“It’s fine.” I reassured him. “I just remember so much.” I sighed and tried not to think about the events again. But I couldn't bury the memories when they were still so recent, no matter how hard I tried. I knew they were going to stay there for a long time. 

“But not everything.” He continued the sentence. 

“Not everything.” I agreed and glanced at Daavit, noticing that his eyes hinted at something he knew but I didn’t, yet. “What are they? Those creatures, I mean. You said your people encountered them almost two decades ago.” 

Daavit only shook his head. “I have heard from whispers and rumours that they hunt down planets with complex life to exploit and found out today, from Ellie in your memory, that we apparently are in their ‘territory’. My father interrogated the captured xic zuri a long time ago but I never got to know personally what he and others had found out, only through Teela.” 

I felt a bad taste build up in the back of my mouth after hearing Ellie’s name. I was still mad about her betraying us so suddenly. What pissed me off even more was how ready she was to kill somebody for her own gains. And she wasn't even willing to speak afterwards until the chief entered the room. The chief... did she even survive? I hoped she did but considering how dire the situation was and that she stayed behind to fight also makes it unlikely that she managed to get out of there alive. Not only that but did Ellie survive the attack too or did she die with the others? It frustrated me that I had so many questions but no answers to them! 

“Were you two close?” Daavit asked, putting his weight onto his arm that was planted on the floor. I shook my head.

“No, we weren't but… there was no reason for us to suspect that she was hiding something from us. She was just there and doing her job as instructed.” I tried to explain and thought back to the many interactions I had seen between her and other crew members. I also thought back to the expeditions I had to follow along, mainly to fly them down to the surface of a planet and back to the ship. We never spoke much to each other anyway. “But… now that I think about it, I found her to be a bit odd.” 

He leaned forward, listening intently at what I was telling him. “Odd how?” 

“Well, she never joined us to eat after a mission and went straight back to the lab for analysis and all that science stuff. She also never shared discoveries, unless they were about finding out if the planet had a potential for life or not and that's together with her group.” I explained to him, my eyebrows knitted together, trying to connect dots that I couldn’t see. “Until she showed us those pictures you saw. I wasn’t even sure why she showed us if she wanted to escape so badly. And the way she spoke about her intentions was even stranger. Who are _ they _? What were they planning to do with all that data she was talking about?”

After my short rambling of unanswered questions, I fell silent and noticed that Daavit was not saying anything as well. He had his eyes narrowed and focused on the smooth rock floor instead. I was sure he thought about something and stayed quiet as to not bother him, watching his eyes blink intermittently. The sunlight touched his face, casting a different hue on his dark skin and shadows forming on the floor. He was definitely used to the rising heat as he didn’t react much to the heat, unlike me who was sweating profusely and hiding away behind Nabir and a book. I should be more used to the warm climate but the humidity here was too much for me. Perhaps a cold shower would be great.

“Do you have a memory of entering certain rooms before the attack? Maybe I could interact with Ellie’s room and find out what she was up to.” He suggested the idea, which was actually a great idea but...with a few problems. 

“Yeah, I do actually.” I said and rubbed my chin with my free hand in thought. “But… how would I guide you through? Do you even know how to use computers?” I asked him. He shook his head no. I sighed and put the book down on the floor as my hand was growing tired of holding it up the whole time. “That would take a while of explaining and giving you enough context.”

“Perhaps we need to plan another way to extract information then.” He mumbled and rubbed his neck.

“Yeah, I’m sure we will come up with something eventually.” I gave Daavit a smile and leaned further back on Nabir, who had fallen asleep at this point, breathing gently. Daavit returned the smile and got up from the floor. I watched him walk past me to stand near the ledge of the balcony, looking out over the city. 

“What would you like to do today?” He suddenly asked me.  
  
“Huh? Uh…” I wasn’t sure what to answer to his question as I had no idea what this city had to offer. Except for one thing. “Clean myself up I suppose?”

He chuckled. “You do smell. I can show you the way to the showers.” 

“Showers?” They have showers?

“Yes, there are several showers in one place. If you want more privacy, there is a spot where I usually go to but you have to keep it a secret of course.” He said as he turned around and tilted his head, looking in my direction. 

“I will keep my mouth shut, I promise.“ I would rather clean myself up in privacy. “Also, did you see the weird bag on your bed?” I asked him, noticing that it was still there but has been moved around and hung on the side of the bed. 

“Oh yes, I did.”

“What is it?” It was not my business to ask but since I saw the letter my curiosity was waiting to get an answer. Instead of getting of angry at me for touching something that was intended for him, he simply smirked. 

“It is from my aunt.” He said with a small smile.  
  
“Your aunt?” I looked back at him now with raised eyebrows. He nodded rather excitedly. 

“Yes, my aunt lives in Vulban. She is a regular terrondan but is married to a vulbanian man. I actually have not heard from her for a good while so it is nice to receive something. In fact, she wrote that she will be visiting us!” He grinned, happy to have a relative over. I smiled in response to his reaction. I haven’t seen any of mine for a decade now, including the time in space. I wonder how much older everyone looks like now. 

“That’s pretty cool. When will she visit you guys?” I asked him, trying to focus on him and not zone out of the conversation. 

“Possibly next week or earlier. It depends on when she has free time.” 

I nodded in response and decided to get up from the floor to stretch my sore limbs. The soreness on my muscles from running away and falling, because of the... landsharks... nightstalkers, I didn't know what to call them, was still present and it somehow felt good to stretch my body despite the pain. I took a deep breath and lifted my arms up in the air, before letting them fall to my sides and exhale. 

“Do you want to clean yourself up now? It could help your body relax.” Daavit suggested.

I nodded. Of course! “Yes, please. Show me the way.” 

* * *

It was a bit awkward to take a bath in a small cave, which was connected to a waterfall, with the prince waiting outside but it felt great to be clean again. I didn't even think it would be a cave of all things but again, what was there to expect? There was a limit to how long I could handle myself being stinky. It also helped a lot with relaxing my damaged muscles. While I cleaned myself up we had a mental discussion between us, as to not attract the attention from any wildlife or people walking by. It was mainly about what he had seen but also about acquiring information inside my memory that we might have missed and theorised what Ellie might have been up to. We eventually arrived at the subject of returning back to space with the jet. 

‘_Can you not fix the crashed jet though? _’ Daavit asked me, waiting just outside of the entrance of the cave. I finished cleaning myself up and dried off enough so I could wear my suit again with ease. 

‘_I can fix computers somewhat but I am not an engineer. That was a job for the actual engineer on the ship. My job was to just be a pilot and assist groups down to the surfaces of different planets we had visited _.’ I replied as I began shoving in my legs first and dragged it up to my torso. 

‘_Is your uhm, AI still inactive? _’ He asked again. I shoved my arms through the sleeves and pulled the zipper up to my neck. It was a good question as I haven’t checked on my helmet since Star went inactive. 

‘_It still might be inactive but we can have a look. If it works still, I could ask it if it knows anything because the AI extended to the whole ship._’ I said and stepped out of the cave, flipping the backpack over to my back and clipped the straps together around my torso. I then looked up to him, as he had been leaning on the rocky surface behind him. ‘_I’m ready._’ 

Daavit nodded and began walking away from the cave. I quickly followed suit and observed the nature around us in daylight. On the large trees, small strange critters like the fluffy one I saw before entering the city, ran across the thick branches and jumping over to the next tree with ease. I wanted to have a closer look on them but they moved too fast for my eyes to follow. On the natural path back to the castle, a large flock of thin legged, black and brown creatures were walking around the open grass landscape nearby and grazing. Daavit explained to me that the ‘Nudu’ are wary of anything walking past so it was best to keep a distance between them and us. It reminded me of deer as they had large antlers but these antlers were covering the forehead and growing out towards the back of the head, pointing backwards with a fork at the end. Some were smaller individuals and lacked the antlers. Weren’t they in the book I had just skimmed through?

‘_Are the smaller horn-less individuals juveniles? _’ I asked out of curiosity as I watched them eat and the individuals standing nearest to the edge of the flock were looking up to see what was wandering so close. They were staring right at us. 

Daavit stayed close to my side and was watching them as well. ‘_Yes, they seem to be the newest offspring from this season. You can probably spot the one year olds hiding with their mothers in the middle if you look closely._’ He explained and I slowly nodded, moving a hand up to above my eyes to block the sun and tried to spot the older ones. 

It took me a moment before I saw a small Nudu with bumps protruding out its forehead and clinging close to what I assumed was its mother. I smiled at the adorable sight and faced Daavit who was doing the same thing and nodded for us to move on as to not bother the flock anymore. 

‘_You don’t complain as much about the telepathy anymore._’ Daavit pointed out as we were walking on the wide dirt path. ‘_Already used to it? _’ He asked me with a small smile. 

‘_I suppose so. The headache is gone at least so… It’s not that bad anymore. The telepathy, I mean _.’ I replied with a shrug. He nodded slowly and returned his gaze forward on the path. I did the same thing and observed the area around us.

We continued down the path through a wooded area once again, however it was from behind the castle. It lead immediately to the very colourful gardens which was a place I actually liked spending time on to observe from Daavit’s room. As we entered the gardens, I sucked in the thick air filled with different aromas and went to sit down on the edge of the cold, flowing fountain. I wished before that this planet had chirping birds to accompany with the sound of water but I was strangely fine with the sounds of the alien critters instead. It was better than hearing nothing at all, which was why I didn’t like this planet at night. It was too quiet for me. 

Daavit walked up to the fountain and stood close to my side, looking down at me basking in the sun. “I thought you did not like sitting under the sun.” He asked me in confusion but I just smiled. 

“Well, the weather is hot so I can just let my hair dry under the sun quicker.” I answered and closed my eyes. I heard him hum in thought and then a shuffle right next to me. I opened my eyes again to see him sitting by the fountain as well. 

“That is a smart idea.” He said and moved his head to look up at the sky. “Basking under the sun is nice too.” 

I nodded as I observed Daavit tilting his head downward so the large dome met the sunlight. He stayed like that for a long while, unmoving and silent with his eyes closed, as if he had fallen asleep. I was about to shake on his shoulder to check on him when he began moving his head back to the original position and glanced down to meet my curious stare. 

“Has your hair dried?” He asked me. I pulled the zipper down located on front and peeled off one sleeve of the suit off my arm and ran my exposed fingers through my hair. It was damp but not too bad for me, I could walk around like that until it dried completely. 

“Pretty much.” I replied and shoved my arm back through the sleeve. “Want to stay here any longer?” 

Daavit shook his head. “We can come back here later any time.” He was right. I would have loved to stay here for hours but I had more important things to do. I silently hoped that Star would work and help me find a way to gather information from the ship. I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to find a way to return home, or at least _ message _ somebody that I wasn’t dead. If they had told the world about it. A heavy sigh escaped my mouth and I pushed myself up from the fountain. 

“Yeah, let’s check my suit.” I said and followed after Daavit, leading me through a door in the garden that went directly into the area where his room was located. The amount of doors in this place was making it feel like I was walking through a maze. I noted to myself that I would have to learn the different pathways eventually, for any situation that needed a quick escape. Or to hide. There are many ways of taking advantage of knowing the routes of a billion doors in a building like the back of your hand. 

We went up the stairs and back to the nice and quiet room. Nabir was still sleeping on the balcony floor with the door wide open. I walked up to the same spot where I usually put my backpack and placed it down. Then I went to the neatly folded armour suit on the floor, along with the helmet on top. I knelt down beside it and picked up the helmet, holding it close to my face. All I could see was my own reflected face on the visor. 

“Star?” I decided to call out its name and test if it would respond. I listened closely to anything making odd noises or their monotone voice answering back softly. There was nothing. I flipped the helmet so I could peer inside. I poked around for anything broken, other than the visor, and then pressed on the buttons on the sides of the helmet. “Star, can you hear me?” I tested again and received no response. “It better not be fried.” I mumbled to myself and popped the cover for the comms up and took a look at the wiring. It seemed completely fine, which made me even more confused. 

“Is it going well?” Daavit asked from above my shoulder. I shrugged, not sure what to give as an answer. “Alright, I’ll leave you be to work on it. Meanwhile, I am going to inform everyone about our surprise letter.” He said and I glanced up to see him holding the letter in his hand. I nodded in acknowledgment and watched him walk out of the room once more. Wouldn’t it have been easier for him to inform everyone telepathically or was it more appropriate to speak verbally about it? When was the right time to use telepathy? I know for now that it’s good to use it when you want to be silent and stealthy. 

I placed down the helmet and leaned my head on my hand, sighing in frustration. Did Star actually malfunction? I wondered if the fall was the cause for the sudden deactivation or that Star did it itself. I didn’t want any of those possibilities though, I wanted Star to _ work _. I reached out to grab the helmet again and took a closer look at it, trying to find anything that seemed off. 

My hand moved across the interior of the helmet and around the inbuilt microphone and earphones again. There was nothing wrong with it so I went ahead and pressed on the buttons again, one at a time, while calling out for Star. 

“This is Lex speaking, pilot of the Hyperion Peregrine. Can you answer me, Star?” I said, going silent quickly and waited for a voice to be heard coming from the helmet. The room was completely quiet except for the faint, soft breathing of Nabir on the balcony and the breeze from outside making the open curtains flow. After a while of nothing, I sighed heavily and pressed my hands harder against the helmet and repeated. 

“Please, answer me. I need your help…” I hated how desperate my voice sounded, just for a computer to come back and help me but I _ needed _ that help. I tried to say something more but I was lost. I shook my head to myself and placed the helmet back on the folded suit in defeat. I sat there for a moment only staring at the helmet. Eventually, I got up from there and went towards the balcony but I paused halfway after hearing a crackling noise from behind. I slowly glanced back and spotted the helmet. 

Blue light was crackling on and off from the visor and a low, muffled and monotone voice coming from it. 

“Repairs and updates completed. I am the spacecraft AI of Hyperion Space Explorer - Peregrine. Call me Star. How can I help you, Lex?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man the break gave me plenty of time to write! Happy to have finished chapter 7 on time :)  
I'm currently working on designing the creatures mentioned and add more information about them.  
Dunno if I will do like a beastiary or something like that but we will see.
> 
> enjoy!


	8. The Silent Beach

“Star?” I asked in a low tone. “Is that really you?”

The muffled voice spoke again. “Yes, I am the only AI called Star so far and the only AI called Star that you know of. You should know it yourself.” Oh, that’s definitely Star. I quickly ran forward, sliding across the soft carpet to my knees and reached out to grab the helmet again. 

“You are not malfunctioned! I’m so happy to hear you again, even though I kinda want to punch you for leaving me like that.” I laughed with a wide smile and stared at the new display in front of me. It was a transparent blue screen but in the middle there were two long horizontal lines going across it and was bobbing up and down ever so slightly. It also moved rapidly whenever Star spoke, indicating that it was showing Star’s ‘voice’. That was new. 

“No, I was simply repairing myself and updating the system, which is needed for maximal performance.” Star explained and I stared at the voice lines moving. They were right about repairing as I didn’t hear any stutters or strange sounds breaking the sentences anymore. “I apologize it took longer than intended.” 

“It’s fine. I’m just glad that you are working because I really need your help with something.” I said, adjusting my position to sit on my knees and put the helmet on to hear Star through the earphones better. 

“What can I help you with?” Star asked. 

“Did you have access to every computer present through the ship’s system?” I asked Star.

“Yes, I did.” It replied. Perfect! 

“Can you go through a specific computer and files from here, even though you are not on the ship anymore?” I asked again. 

“Yes and no. I have to be connected to a part of the main computer to be able to hack through locked folders or dig up files from a specific computer not accessible.” It answered and quickly went silent for me to respond. 

Shit.

“That means…” I began as I rubbed my fingers together, thinking hard of what to do next. If Star required a computer from the main one on the ship and the only thing that came from the ship was the jet… 

”Could the jet’s computer work then?” I asked as a suggestion and watched the lines go down as Star made a humming sound, as if in thought. 

“Yes, it could.” It said and I felt myself grin wide in satisfaction. Finally, we are getting somewhere with this!

“That’s good news! I will have to tell Daavit about it first before we head out for another adventure out there.” I said and looked at the closed door near me. He hasn’t returned yet. “Also, you seem to have new functions on you.” I continued as my eyes shifted to look at the corner of the visor. The temperature of today was being shown in both Celsius and Fahrenheit as well as the weather, which was sunny and humid. 

“Yes. It’s a part of the update. I am more efficient now than before.” It said and I nodded along. It was impressive how Star could do things like that to itself, without the help from a human. 

“That’s great, Star. What functions have been added?” I asked in curiosity about the apparent updates it got itself. 

“Tracking of living organisms, monitoring your physiological processes and needs, a more accurate creation of maps and temperature measurements and a lot more you probably don’t care to listen about.” Star replied and I chuckled at the way it responded. It was changing fast. Something tells me that it wasn’t able to fix the ’malfunction’ that gave it personality. 

“And awareness of yourself? You seem to be more of a person now too.” I smiled and watched the lines go down again. 

“If I had shoulders I would shrug right now.” It spoke in a lowered tone which I interpreted as a mumble. 

Clearly aware. 

Eventually, Star went quiet as I had nothing more to ask and pried the helmet off my head. I ruffled my messy hair around with a hand and put the helmet back on the suit. I sighed with a smile, feeling very pleased over the good news and got up from my sitting position. All I had to do now was wait for Daavit to come back and start planning on returning back to the eerily silent beach. It wasn’t actually silent because of the crashing waves but the area itself was so lifeless. On Earth there would at least be washed up jellyfish, a random crustacean or seabirds flying around and being noisy but here there was nothing to be seen. It’s a completely different planet though so I didn’t know what was hiding under the sand or in the ocean as I never took time to explore. If I ever did it though, I hoped for relatively harmless creatures. 

My feet turned around to walk towards the balcony and to the now awake Nabir yawning. I grinned and reached my hand out to give her scratches around the head and the scales. Her tail began slapping against the rock floor when I scratched her on the right spot. I laughed like an excited child with a dog and continued to scratch her on the same spot. She opened her mouth, her teeth showing slightly. It looked a lot like a smile.

“Oh that’s the good spot, isn’t it?” I asked her in a playful tone and received a big lick on my face as response. My face scrunched up in disgust and wiped my face with an arm. I should start taking notes of how many times I have gotten licked in the face by a giant alien. “Well, you really like giving people kisses, don’t you?” And another one. “Goddamnit. I just cleaned up, Nabir!” I groaned as tried to wipe off the saliva again.

Then I felt something land softly on my head and cover my face, in which I tensed up from the surprise and quickly turned around to see who threw it, grabbing the cloth off my head at the same time. Maroon clothing was the first thing I noticed and immediately relaxed my raised fist. 

“Something for you to dry on.” Daavit said with a smirk and leaned on the open door, watching me wipe the saliva off my face with the cloth. I grumbled a thanks.

“How did it go? The letter thing.” I asked as I looked up at him, flipping the cloth over my shoulder. 

He shrugged but answered me anyway. “As well as informing your family about a relative coming over could go. The cooks are already making plans on what dinner to make for them.” He replied and I nodded, placing the cloth down on the balcony table. “Did you manage to get the AI to work?” 

I nodded quickly and with a smile. “Oh yes! And even better, it _ can _ connect to the jet and find the files we need, which means we can access Ellie’s files and see what she was doing.” I explained to him, summing up the important parts of the conversation I had with Star. I could see how Daavit’s eyes lit up and leaned forward at my direction to listen closely. “Though we have to get to the jet first and that’s where I need your thoughts on it.” 

Daavit moved his head around and did a quick glance at Nabir sitting on the floor, then looking over the horizon in silence before returning his attention to me. “It is getting closer to dark and it is not safe to be outside the city at night either. As you have experienced it yourself.” He began talking and rested his hands on his hips. I nodded. I wouldn’t have lasted an entire night here without the help from Nabir and also Daavit. “I recommend we go to the beach tomorrow morning for safer travel.” 

"Can’t we just get to the beach before the sun goes down and make it quick with the computer work?” I asked and was met with a shaking head from Daavit. “Come on, we can just grab the files and look at them here. No time would be wasted and we can take it easy in the warm, comfy room of yours.”

Suddenly, he looked unsure and made quick glances around him, as if making sure nobody was listening in on us. “My father would not be pleased with this at all. It is too dangerous out there.” He lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned closer to me. “I cannot risk you getting hurt.”

“Well… I got you by my side?” I smiled innocently. His expression was concerned but changed to one of defeat and sighed. I felt bad for persuading him into doing it but my patience had run out quickly and I only wanted to get the data and leave.

“Fine.” He whispered with a serious tone. “But you have to stay close to me and we will make a fast trip to the beach and back before the sun goes down, okay?” 

“Aye.” I nodded. 

“Good. Start preparing now, I will call for our ride so we can leave earlier.” Daavit whispered again and stood near the edge of the balcony. 

I hurriedly went inside the room to the suit on the floor and quickly dressed up. As I attached the helmet on, I noticed that Star went idle as the blue transparent screen wasn’t there anymore. I pressed on a button and called Star out loud. The screen returned. 

“Hello, Lex.” It said calmly. 

I bent down to pick the backpack up and clip it around my waist again. “Hey, can you mark the location of the crash site on a map? We will be going there pretty soon.” I requested as I grabbed the shotgun and checked if it was loaded, then took the handgun and placed it around my thigh. Despite the beach being empty, I was not planning on getting chased by some predator again. On the side of the visor, I could see a smaller square screen that was generating a map, along with added coordinations and a red checkpoint of the crash site. It was certainly working a lot faster than before. 

“It is on its way.” I heard Daavit inform me from the balcony. Soon after I heard a distant humming. I walked out again and stood next to him to watch the incoming white cloudjumper swim through the air. It eventually slowed down its speed as it came closer and closer to the balcony, until it stopped right next us. It let out another hum, louder than the other which made my chest rumble from the vibrations. I took a short breath in reaction from the uncomfortable rumbling and watched the elegant creature hover with ease, moving its strange wings ever so slightly with the wind to stay at the same spot. Daavit spoke something in his native tongue and patted it softly on the side. I wish I could understand. 

I gripped on the shoulder straps and took a step forward closer to the cloudjumper. “Ready to leave?” I asked him, eager to get to the crash site now. 

He nodded and extended an arm towards me. “Yes. Hop on.” I hesitantly grabbed his arm and climbed up on the ledge. “Do not panic from the wobble you will feel when trying to get on. Just try to stay calm or you will make the cloudjumper stressed too.” 

I looked at the cloudjumper in front of me, which was hovering several feet above the ground and waiting patiently for us to get on. “I will be fine.” I told him, not sure where the sudden confidence came from, and let go of his arm to latch myself onto its back. Then I tried to pull myself up over the now wobbling cloudjumper. I struggled to get my leg over its back and held on to the side, hoping for it to stop wobbling. It was like trying to get on a horse but the horse was flying and moving away from the balcony! 

”Woah! Wait, where are you going!?” I yelled at the cloudjumper, trying to make it stop wobbling around but it slowly flipped its body over to hover upside down instead. I managed to grab on to the two extensions on its back and held on for my dear life. “No, don’t fly away from the balcony!” I yelled again in panic. It was hovering a few feet away from the the ledge, letting out short and loud, happy chirps. It was certainly having fun scaring me. I slowly turned my head to stare at Daavit with a not so amused expression as he desperately tried to call over his ride back.

* * *

“I am so sorry.” Daavit apologised from behind me. When he had finally gotten the cloudjumper back in control, he checked on me several times before I reassured him that I was alright. Even though I was a bit pissed at the cloudjumper. 

Air was flowing in through the crack on the visor and cooling my body down from the heat I had built up. We had departed from the building twenty minutes ago and were almost halfway through the route already. The map provided by Star was very accurate and we decided to stick to it for now, unless Star decided not to help us. That wasn’t much of a concern though as Daavit was great at navigating on ground. I, however, wasn’t. I would definitely get lost if I had no one else with me.

“It is unusually playful today… “ He mumbled to himself, still talking about the cloudjumper’s odd behaviour. I shook my head slightly. 

“It’s fine, Daavit. Don’t worry about it. I guess cloudjumpers just like me a lot. In a weird way.” I turned around to face him and gave him a smirk. He narrowed his eyes at me.

“If that is the case then after we are done with this task, I will have to make you tame a cloudjumper.” He said calmly.

I blinked at him in confusion. “T-tame a cloudjumper?”

“We have to test if your claims are true, right?” 

I stared at him for a moment. Did he really want me to tame a wild alien creature? I glanced down at the cloudjumper that made me almost fall from the height of the balcony and thought of how a _ wild _cloudjumper would behave. I must have looked scared because I heard Daavit chuckle and leaned close to my shoulder.

“Not up for it?” He asked me and I glanced back to him with squinted eyes. I’m not backing away from a challenge! 

“Oh, you bet your ass I am up for it. After we are done, take me to a wild cloudjumper and I will prove to you that they like me.” I said with a confident tone, despite my brain telling me that it was a bad, bad idea.

Daavit nodded with a surprised expression. “Alright, I did not expect that.” 

I faced forward with a smirk and continued to watch the map. We were getting much closer to the beach. I never thought I would have to return to the crashed jet so soon which made me feel somewhat excited. 

I heard Daavit let out a sigh. My head turned around ever so slightly to look at what Daavit was doing and saw him watching me. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was doing but he didn’t seem to react to me staring back. Carefully, I raised a hand and waved it at his direction. A quick blink. 

“Hm?” Was all that came out from him and I felt my lips stretch.

“What are you thinking about, Daavit?” I asked him and turned around once again to watch the map. Almost there! I changed direction to look ahead for any sign of the jet on the beach. There was still light out so it shouldn’t be difficult to spot it among the sand. The cloudjumper moved swiftly above the same dense forest I had to walk through and hummed gently. Daavit said something to the cloudjumper and made it fly higher up. 

“I was thinking about dinner.” He admitted and I chuckled to myself. I was starting to get hungry as well but important things first. 

I lifted my hand up to cover my eyes from the sun and scanned the beach for the jet. There wasn’t a sign of it anywhere near the marked checkpoint on the map. That wasn't good. I breathed in slightly, feeling stress rapidly build up in my body and asked Daavit, “Hey, do you see the jet anywhere? I can’t see it.” 

He was doing the same thing and scanned at the same directions I did and with a shake of his head he said no. I clenched my jaw and said nothing else. _Fuck_.

“Let’s head down to the ground.” He continued and made the cloudjumper hover down towards the sand and stopped at where the checkpoint was. I quickly hopped off the cloudjumper and landed on my feet with a small thud from the sand. I walked towards the familiar rocks that had endured the impact and stared at the empty spot, absolutely bewildered. A second after, light thuds on the sand and footsteps came up right behind me and looked over my shoulder. 

“It isn’t here.” I said as I breathed out and hurriedly walked around the rocks. The broken glass shards were still there on the sand. “Where the hell is it?” I asked as I looked up to Daavit on the other side, who was just as confused as I was at the scene in front of us. 

“It could not have drifted out by the water. It does not reach up this far.” He explained to me while looking down at the sand. I gritted my teeth and turned away from the rock, kicking up sand in frustration. 

“Fuck! We were so close! Where did it go!?” I yelled out to no one and fell to my bum. “Star! Can you track the darn thing?” 

“It has to be active for me to track it otherwise I cannot.” It spoke up from its temporary nap and showed me a small screen that had tried to track the jet but was unable to. “And it seems to be inactive.” 

“Goddamnit.” I angrily whispered to myself and rose up from the sand. My attention turned to Daavit and walked carefully over to him. I spotted him pacing around the sand and bending down to inspect something interesting. “What did you find?” I asked, my anger getting replaced by curiosity but he quickly turned around with his palm stretched out. I stopped at my tracks and gestured at him with a confused hand. 

“I think I found something, I do not want you to disturb the sand too much.” He explained and suddenly my feet weren’t touching the sand anymore. “I am going to put you on the rocks, do not worry.” 

I flailed my arms and legs around in panic, shouting to him to put me down, as he guided my floating body to the rocks. Then I was gently placed on the rock. I scrambled around to sit properly and look at Daavit’s direction. 

“Couldn’t you have warned me first?!” I asked loudly for him hear. However, he didn’t answer me as he was too busy walking around the sand, investigating something he had apparently found. I only shook my head and shuffled forward to sit near the edge of the rock to try to see what it was. Daavit’s whole body was covering everything though which left me to only stare at his clothed back. The long drapes touched and rested on top of the sand as he crouched down. 

“Someone or several others were here.” I heard him say as he got up and stepped closer to the rock, pausing where I was and pointing at the sand. I followed his hand and saw distinct footprints leading to where the jet would have been. They looked like cat paws, just like Daavit’s but the only difference was the size between Daavit’s paws and the other’s paws. They were slightly larger and wider than his. 

“Who?” 

“These are definitely vulbanian footprints.” He said, giving me a glance. I could see that behind his eyes, his mind was stirring with questions and thoughts. “And if that is the case, did they take your jet?” Daavit murmured at the last question. 

I breathed in through my nose and exhaled, trying not to get mad again over this situation. “How am I supposed to find it and get it back?” I asked him and clumsily slid off the rock, the shotgun scraping against it. 

“All we can do now is to wait for the meeting with Nova. We could ask if she has any idea of where it could be.” 

“You said the meeting would be within three days right?” I asked as I patted off dirt on the suit. 

“Yes, something like that.” He replied and folded his arms together. “She will most likely have company with her as well.” 

“Company?” 

Daavit nodded. “She is a leader. She will have important people with her to listen and engage in conversation as well. It is also usually a security thing, to keep her safe and protected in case anyone is attempting to harm her.” He explained as his eyelids lowered and face turned to a more disgusted expression. “I am sure she will have that _ sekkoh _ with her.”

I blinked. “Who?” 

“Ah, excuse me. She almost always bring with her Nemir, who sometimes speaks for her or brings up suggestions for future collaborations and other projects. Sometimes he is just there to listen and observe the meeting.” Daavit said and looked away from me. “I am not fond of him. To be honest, none of us are fond of him, not even my father.”

My head tilted in curiosity. “Why?”

“I am not sure how to explain it but he gives off an uneasy aura whenever he is around. He is also quite rude to us, which I think is because he thinks of us as inferior to them.” Daavit sighed and turned his eyes back to me. “Do you understand what I mean?”

I nodded and looked down at the sand. Why would he see them as inferior? From the description I got from Daavit, he seemed like an asshole in general. 

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” I said and looked back up. “Also what does _ sekkoh _ mean?” I asked, trying to pronounce the word as I heard it come out from Daavit’s mouth. I heard him chuckle at my attempt. 

“It basically means ‘creep’,” Daavit said, letting out a small sigh. “I think you would understand why I call him that once you actually meet him.” 

I nodded and leaned on the rock. “If he is being called a creep then I don’t think I want to be alone with him at all.” 

“Me too.” 

We stayed quiet after that and listened to the ocean waves gliding over the wet sand and returning back. I glanced up to the sky and noticed how close the first moon was to the planet. It was a small moon but I didn’t take note of the distance until now. Another thing I noticed were the craters. It was a full moon as well so spotting the craters without using a telescope wasn’t a difficult task. The craters were huge and scattered across the entire visible surface, much like our moon. The other two moons weren’t as visible but I could definitely see them in the background having a tug of war with each other. 

Daavit suddenly looked over his shoulder at the ocean from hearing something splashing in the water. I shifted my eyes to the source of the splashing and saw a dog-sized, long noodle thing hopping out from the water, along with a shelled creature dragged across the sand clamped between its jaws. Smaller versions of the creature jumped out from the water after it, yapping and nibbling on the hard mass. 

‘_That is a female sirann with her pups. I have not seen much of them lately mainly due to spending more time in the city than going to the beach._’ Daavit’s voice spoke in my mind and I smiled as the mother sirann bit into the shell and opened it with an audible crack, ripped off a piece of flesh from inside the shell and fed one of the pups. The pup nearest to her happily ate up the piece and the mother continued to rip off pieces of flesh to feed her babies. 

‘_That’s really cute._’ I commented and silently shifted position to stand upright. ‘_Perhaps we should leave them alone_.’ 

Daavit nodded. ‘_We should._’ 

He began walking away from the little family of sirann and I hurriedly followed after him. Glancing back, I saw that the mother was observing us but went back to feeding her kids after realising we weren’t going to bother her. I smiled softly to myself and continued on. We walked back to the cloudjumper hovering above the sand but I abruptly paused as I remembered something important. 

“Wait, Daavit. I forgot something.” I called out for him to stop and Daavit turned around to face me and blinked. 

“What did you forget?” He asked. 

“Thomas.” 

Daavit understood what I wanted to do. He nodded and lead me in a different direction in to the forest. It didn’t take long until he stopped in front of a patch on the ground which clearly looked off from the rest of the dirt. I carefully stepped up to the patch and observed it. The surface was empty and had nothing marked on it, which I wanted him to have. 

“I’m going to look for a rock.” I told Daavit and began scouring the area after a decently sized rock to place upon the grave.

“Why?” He asked.

“Mark the grave, makes it easier to find it. I also want to write his name on it.” I explained quickly as I kicked away smaller rocks and patted away sand and dirt from a rock that was protruding out from the ground. “Can you help me get this one out?” I asked Daavit as I took a step away from it. He nodded and focused his gaze on the rock. The dirt around the rock was being pulled away from it, digging down a bit and then wriggled up from the ground until the rock was completely revealed. It’s size was enough to be a small tombstone. 

“Where do you want me to put it?” Daavit asked while holding onto the rock with his telekinesis. I walked back over to the grave and showed him where to put it. He carefully placed it down at the spot I was pointing at and let go of it. 

“Perfect. Thank you.” I gave him a pleased smile and placed a hand on the rock. It was still warm but was gradually losing heat as the sun was going below the horizon. 

“It is no problem. You wanted to write something on it?” He asked.

“Yeah, I don’t have the tools for it though.” 

“I can use my telekinesis for it.” 

“Does that really work?” I stared at him with a raised eyebrow, having a hard time imagining how that would even work. He nodded. How the hell? “Alright, if you want to then go ahead. I don’t want to force you to do it.”

Daavit shook his head. “It is fine. I want to do it.” He focused his gaze again on the rock and asked me what to write. I told him exactly what to write on it and watched him carve letters on the surface of the rock by getting another smaller and sharper rock and scraping on the surface. That’s what he meant by using his telekinesis. Smart. 

I sat down on the ground near him and spent the rest of the time watching him work on the rock. The carvings were smooth and beautiful, almost looked like someone wrote on it with a pen. Though it was getting difficult to see the carvings and the rock as the darkness was coming in on us. We were supposed to have returned before night time. I hoped his father wouldn’t get mad at him for something I had suggested and wanted to do. 

“And the last letter.” Daavit spoke as he finished it up and got up from the ground, grinning proudly at his work. “I like how it turned out.” 

I got up as well and agreed with him. “I like it too. Thank you, Daavit.” 

“It is no problem.” He said with a gentle smile. 

Daavit had also added carvings of swirling patterns on the corners of the rock, similar to the patterns on the chest of his clothing. I placed my hand on it, observing the carvings and noticed the green, soft mossy plant that was growing on the top of the rock. It should be able to flourish on the rest of the rock now that it got a lot more space exposed to the world. 

“It is getting dark, we have to leave now.” He said as he stared at the sky above. I looked up as well, the darkness quickly taking over the rays of orange and red painted on the sky, replacing them with night blue and black.

“Yeah, I’ll be right behind you.” I mumbled and heard Daavit walking back. 

I squatted down next to the carved tombstone. What were you even supposed to say to someone who died? Before I was upset about his death and crying from the shock. Now that I stood here next to him, I felt numb and empty instead. I was never the one to hold speeches at funerals. That’s how I usually dealt with it but now I felt that I _ had _ to say something to Thomas. 

I shook my head to myself. No. Nothing that I say to him would matter now. My best friend was _ gone_. 

“Lex! Are you coming?” Daavit called out from afar and I looked up to see him waving to me, having mounted the cloudjumper already. I returned the gesture with my free arm.

“I’m coming!” I yelled back and quickly rose up from my crouching position. I looked down at the tombstone for a while before turning around to walk away, slowly sliding my hand off from the rock surface. 

“I’m sorry, Thomas. See you later.” I whispered and walked back to where Daavit was waiting. His glowing eyes were following me until I reached to the cloudjumper and paused, turning my head to face the direction of the grave. Nausea was starting to build up in my empty stomach the longer I focused on the tombstone. He really was gone. I didn’t want to leave him there but there was nothing else I could do. Except to find out what the hell happened to the jet.

“Are you alright?” Daavit asked and reached down to grab me by the arm, which I automatically held on to and lifted myself up together with the pull from Daavit. 

I nodded slightly, not having any energy to talk about it. I wanted to mourn my friend in silence. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go back before someone gets mad.” 

Daavit directed his steed to hover higher up from from the beach. “I think someone already is.” He sighed and the cloudjumper quickly flew away from the beach and back towards the city.


	9. Grounded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it had taken so long for me to update this! Chapter 9 have already been written down but due to university and a lot of motivational energy being drained from it, I haven't been able to work on this story as much. I finally found time and energy today and I will continue to work on the story as usual, but I cannot guarantee that I will be able to upload them every month.

Yep, someone was mad indeed. 

We both immediately felt it and saw the source of the anger as soon as we reached the castle grounds and hopped off the cloudjumper. Daavit’s father was nearby with his staff firmly planted on the ground and stared at us with a deadly stare. I swear I almost thought he would shoot lasers at us from how red his eyes were glowing in the dark. I shot an uneasy glance at Daavit, who did the same thing and followed after him as he walked up to his father. I stood by him and noticed Teela standing by the entrance with her arms folded against her chest, watching us in silence. Did she see us leave? 

Kaamon narrowed his eyes as he saw me standing next to Daavit. I knew he was not happy to see me there and while his presence was still intimidating, I wasn’t afraid to stare right back at him. When he saw that I didn’t react to him, he decided to move his gaze over to Daavit instead. 

“Would you like to explain why you were outside this late?” His deep voice cutting the silence around us. 

Daavit stepped forward to his father. “We went to find Lex’s jet. I was told that important information is kept in there, which could possibly tell us more about the xic zuri.” He explained while gesturing with his hands, as well as moving a hand towards me. 

I noticed his father staring me down with an intense gaze, making me feel uncomfortable at the invisible pressure he was exerting on me. But instead of backing away, I continued to fix my eyes on him. Why was he staring at me like that? It was fucking uncomfortable. I could see his chest contract and deflate as he eventually shook his head and focused on his son again. Finally the attention was not on me.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” He asked Daavit, voice still stern. Daavit shook his head slightly.

“No… Someone took it.” Daavit said as Kaamon’s eyes narrowed even more, most likely in interest at who could have taken the jet. He then moved his eyes, scanning our surroundings a short moment before lifting the staff up from the ground and turned around. 

“Let us talk inside.” He said and began walking away towards the entrance where Teela was still standing. 

We exchanged quick confused looks. We thought he would be angrier than this. We both jogged up to Kaamon, with me standing slightly behind Daavit. Daavit walked next to his father and looked up at him, raising a hand to say something but fell silent for a moment. He looked over his shoulder to me. I just shrugged. I had no idea what was going on. 

He turned his head back to look forward. “Are… Are you not mad at us?” I heard Daavit ask Kaamon, who was using the staff as a cane. Watching him closely, I noticed that his gait seemed off. It was _ almost _ unnoticeable, as it was a very small detail and that was why I didn’t see it before, but he was limping. Compared to Daavit, I could see that his hip movement was uneven and his left foot was on the ground for a much shorter period of time than the other one. The staff helped him give more force and stability to the other leg. An old injury?

“Of course I am mad. I will be dealing with this once you have given me more information.” Kaamon spoke, not looking at Daavit. “And this will be done inside.” 

Daavit glanced back to me with a worried look. I walked up next to him, gave him a thumbs up and a small smile, trying to reassure him that everything would be fine. We walked up to the steps which lead to the entrance and inside the building. Kaamon quickly walked up the steps despite the limping and passed Teela who was still waiting by the doors. As we climbed up the stairs, she walked forward to stand next to Daavit on his empty side. 

“How did your little adventure go?” She asked him, arms crossed and with a calm expression. 

Daavit glanced to her. “Did you tell father that we left?” He asked and watched her closely. I did the same thing but was also observing Daavit’s face. It was neutral and calm as well. 

“No, I didn’t.” She said and let her arms rest on her sides instead. She sounded honest. Daavit’s expression slowly changed to a confused, but also a suspicious expression. Teela noticed. “Do you really think he wouldn’t notice you were gone? He managed to find that out by himself and I wasn’t planning on telling him about your leave.” 

Ah, so she did see us leave. 

Daavit sighed and briefly looked at the ground. “I did not think it would take us that long... We were delayed and that is why we returned late.” He said. I just stood there and listened to both aliens talk.

She took a step forward to him so they stared directly at each other’s faces. “You should have told us anyway. And what were you even delayed by? The human who cannot control a goddamn cloudjumper?” She pointed at me and shot me a glare, in which I glared back at her. 

Daavit side stepped to hide me away from her. I blinked and backed away from his swaying tail, not wanting to get hit by it if it suddenly were to swing around violently. “Do not blame him. I was the one who agreed to this.” His voice was louder than before and lacked emotion. I peeked from his side to see what was happening. 

Teela was silent for a moment as she retracted her arms back into a fold and tilted her head. “Daavit.” She said with a more worried voice and stepped away from him. “Next time you want to go somewhere, just _ tell _ us. And no forgetting. Okay?” 

Daavit only managed to respond with a slight, tense nod before we heard Kaamon call loudly for his name. He quickly whipped his head in the direction of the voice and then looked down to me. I shrugged once again and began walking inside the building instead, along with Daavit who lead me to where Kaamon would be waiting for us. As we wandered through the long hallway, I glanced back to see Teela walk off in the opposite direction and disappearing from view. I returned my focus to Daavit just in time to see that he had stopped walking. My helmet hit his back at full speed before I could stop my legs, my forehead bumping at the visor and stumbled backwards, almost falling down. I watched him stumble a bit forward but quickly regained his balance and turned around to look at me with widened eyes. 

My hand moved to place it on the helmet as I smiled awkwardly at him. “Sorry. Didn’t see you. Are you alright?” I asked and walked up to him. He returned to his normal stance and nodded. 

“What about you? You must have hit your face pretty hard.” He said. I nodded while rubbing the helmet I was still wearing. That was a pretty solid back he got. After observing me for a moment and making sure I was fine, he nodded for me to walk through an open doorway. I did as I was told and went through the doorway, with Daavit behind, and into a small room. 

It was close to the size of Daavit’s room, except for the lack of a balcony and having a wide window behind a desk. Surrounding both sides of the desk, there were two bookcases completely filled up with books and papers. It wasn’t as neatly organised as Daavit’s bookcase but there was some level of organisation going on. I guessed it was the papers ruining the organisation. On the desk there was a bundle of papers in which Kaamon was currently using them to write something on them. We stood there in front of his desk, glancing to each other while waiting for him to finish what he was doing. It went on for another whole minute before he carefully placed down his pencil and held up the paper in front of himself. 

“Tell me what you found.” He spoke while folding the paper together, pushing it to the side and placing some kind of weight on it to keep it on its place. “What do you mean someone stole the jet?” He clasped his hands together and placed them on the desk, looking directly at Daavit.

Daavit sighed softly to himself and straightened himself. “We found a group of footprints around the area where the jet was supposed to be. I found them to be very similar to vulbanian footprints.” 

Kaamon narrowed his eyes as he heard what Daavit was telling him. “Are you saying that a group of vulbanians or a vulban entered our lands without our permission and took the human’s jet?” He asked him with a more lowered voice. 

Daavit nodded. “It could be a possibility yes. They were larger than mine.” 

Kaamon sighed heavily as he leaned back on the chair he was seated on. “That must be brought up with Nova. If she knew about it then it will be a problem.” 

“After that we left. There was nothing else for us to do there.” I heard Daavit continue and cut out the part where we stayed a bit longer to find a tombstone for Thomas. I glanced to him only to see him looking my way with a small smile. I returned the smile, appreciating that he kept Thomas’ grave a secret and turned my head away to observe the bookcases instead. I was being ignored by Kaamon after all so what else was there for me to do other than stand by and listen in? 

“Good.” Kaamon replied to Daavit and tapped a finger softly on the the wooden desk. “Now that has been talked about, there is one thing left.” He continued and stopped tapping on the desk, his palm on the surface of the desk. “You and the human are not allowed to leave the city until the meeting occurs. That is when you will join in on the meeting. Both of you.” 

I whipped my head to Kaamon’s direction. “What?” I said loudly and immediately shut my mouth when Kaamon shot me an angry stare. Are we getting _ grounded _?

Daavit stepped forward to his father and leaned on the desk with both arms on it. “Just for returning home late?”

“And for not informing me of your leave.” His father added, clearly looking more pissed off now than before. “Be happy that you are allowed to walk within the city.” He said and reached his hand to the bundle of papers and placed one on the desk, picking up the pencil once again. “You are dismissed.” 

Daavit looked over to me with an expression that I would translate to ‘are you fucking kidding me?’ look and only shook my head. I had no say in this after all. He sighed to himself and turned away from the desk to walk in the direction of the exit. 

“Oh, and Solal requires help with their telekinesis. You will have to teach them from now on.” His father added. Daavit paused his walking and so did I, but he didn’t look back to his father. I could see that there was some frustration building up in Daavit’s eyes as he heard what Kaamon said. 

“Yes, father.” Was all he said and continued his walking. I casually followed after him and stepped out from the room as Daavit closed the door after him. He sighed heavily and glanced to my direction. “Let us go to my room so you can change back.” Daavit told me and walked in the direction of the stairs.

”Two 26 year olds just got grounded. That’s incredible.” I chuckled to myself. I had to admit I was a bit annoyed that I had to be grounded by aliens, but not as annoyed as having my jet stolen which took away my chance of possible escape. If I found out who stole my jet, they will have a nice meeting with my fists.

”Incredible indeed.” Daavit shook his head and sighed.

After that, everything fell silent except for the sounds of my boots echoing off the stone floors. Daavit’s footsteps were entirely silent. It felt awkward being the only one in the room making noise while everyone else were basically alien ninjas. That kind of made me jealous. 

I stayed next to him the whole time, climbing the stairs to the second floor and back to his room. I stopped at the location of the dresser and put down the heavy backpack. Then I took off the armoured suit and folded it together as usual. With the helmet on top of course. I placed my hands on my hips and turned around to see what Daavit was doing. I spotted him sitting down with his back facing the bookcase, while holding a rather thin book in his hands. Curious, I went up to him and spotted a pencil in his other hand.

“What are you doing?” I asked. 

He looked up at me, blinking once. “Huh? Oh, I am just sketching…” 

“Can I watch? It looks lovely.” 

Daavit smiled at my comment and nodded, shuffling to the side to let me sit down next to him. I quickly sat down and leaned forward to be able to see it properly. Daavit noticed and lowered his legs so the sketchbook was on a good level for me to see and continued to sketch on the large canvas. I subconsciously returned to a normal sitting position as he did so and watched him draw the sirann we saw today and with her pups in great detail. The waves wetting the sand and the mother sirann carrying her catch while her pups followed after her. I was impressed at how well he was illustrating the sirann, even though we only saw them for a brief moment. It was almost as if he took a photograph with his eyes. 

“Hey, Daavit. Do you have a photographic memory?” I asked out of curiosity as I watched his hand pause for a brief moment and then turn his attention to me. 

“Photographic memory?” 

“It’s like..” I began as I waved my hands around, trying to find the words to explain it as well as I could and for him to understand. “Like you remember something clearly after only seeing it once and can put it down on paper without having to look at the same thing again.” I explained to him and pointed at the sketch. 

He returned his attention to the sketch and hummed for a short moment. “I do not think I do. I have been at the beach a few times before and I have seen the siranns as well, so I know already what they would look like.” He said and continued to sketch on his book. “If I have to draw someone new, I would need to have them in front of me for a while.” 

I nodded slowly. “Okay.” I said and crossed my legs together. Daavit had moved on to sketch something else in which my head leaned to the side to get a better look. 

It resembled one of the worms I had seen in the bestiary. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it looked a lot like the purple version of them. No visible eyes, no limbs, plated back and a rounded head. 

“Isn’t it the purple worm in the book?” I asked him while pointing at it. “It looks like the drawings at least.” 

Daavit nodded and finished the drawing off with strange squiggly lines at the bottom. “Yes. It is an extremely rare creature and almost considered mythical as no sightings have been made for a millenia.” He sighed and placed the pencil between the pages. “There are only old documents and texts left about them as evidence of their existence. I can take you to the library after the meeting if you would like to.” Daavit suggested and looked at me to see me nodding quickly. Of course I want to see the library! I didn’t even know there was one here. He returned the nod as a way to register my accepting of the suggestion and looked down at the canvas. “I wish to see a Naka one day.” His voice was hopeful but almost sounded upset as well. 

“Haven’t you considered the fact that they... may be extinct?” As much as I didn’t want to break his hopes of seeing a Naka in the future, there could another reason as to why the last sighting was written down a thousand years ago. Usually it meant extinction. 

Daavit nodded again but with a saddened expression. ”I have.” He said and carefully closed the sketchbook, turning his head to look in my direction. ”I am not sure what could have affected their lives so drastically though.”

From what I know and have seen happen with my own eyes, it could have been anything from a changing climate to a sudden disaster event. I had no idea how the climates here worked or how often natural disasters occurred, which meant a lot of things could have affected the species’ presence. The fact that it was almost considered _ mythical _ as well made me doubt that there were hardly any left on this planet. I could only give him a slight shrug as response. I had no answer to what could have happened to them. He let out a short sigh, reopened the sketchbook to the same page and lifted his pen. 

“Well, perhaps some day, if I am lucky, I will see one.” He began sketching something new below the naka and I returned to observe him.

This time he sketched another worm, the one with the two mouths and spines coming out from its back. It seemed to be emerging from a sand dune, kicking the sand around as it wriggled free. One of its mouths was open, screeching, as a figure on the sand below had fallen back on their behind and with an arm raised in front of them as a futile attempt on protecting themself from the worm. What made me react more to it was the sheer size of the worm emerging. It was _ huge _, at least the size of a sperm whale! The figure was so small compared to it, there was no way they could have escaped its incoming death. I was horrified at how detailed the scene was and how it played out as if someone had paused a video at the right moment. The figure’s fate was clear. They weren’t going to survive. 

I thought back to what Daavit had said about remembering things clearly after encountering it several times and watched closely at the drawing. He continued to add more sand dunes to the background, the desert growing larger and larger. Trying to find your way out of there would be impossible if you didn’t have any help or a ride.

I glanced up to the very focused Daavit, who had his head tilted down in an awkward position, keeping the dome away from bumping on the bookcase behind us. Was the reason for the detail because of him being present there at some point? 

No, it didn’t make sense. Why would he even be there to witness a person getting eaten alive by a freaky sand worm? And on a _ desert _ as well? But still… it was too detailed to be ’just a doodle from a bored artist’. I continued to watch him, contemplating whether I should ask him about the drawing or not. I was curious to know if it was just a weird drawing or if it was something he had actually seen. If yes, then what was the context behind it?

I wanted to know. I took a silent breath in.

”Hey Daavit-” I was about to start asking him about the drawing when at the same time, I was cut off by him starting to ask me something as well.

”Lex- oh, sorry.” He paused himself and looked over to me. ”Were you going to ask me something? You can start.” He said with an embarrassed smile, putting down his pencil and let go of the sketchbook.

”No, no. You can go first. It wasn’t important.” I waved with a hand. Daavit blinked for a moment and pursed his lips. 

”Are you sure?” 

I nodded quickly and rested my arms on my lap, waiting for Daavit to speak. ”Yeah, go ahead.” I was somewhat relieved that I didn’t have to ask him that for now. 

”I… hope you do not mind me asking you about what I saw in the memory.” Daavit asked, watching me with those glowing eyes. The only light in the room came from the moonlight peeking in from the open balcony. It gave off a blue hue to every object it touched, even to Daavit, though only on the side where the light came from. The rest only gave off a darker appearance to Daavit, his red eyes brighter than before, which made me somewhat nervous to look at. 

“I don’t. Ask me whatever.” I reassured him that it was fine and continued to wait for his question. He nodded and closed his eyes for a short moment before opening them again.

“I found pictures in your memory.” He began speaking calmly. ”Pictures of what I assumed were you with your parents.” He continued and I tightened my lips together as I knew where this was going. Of course he had to look through things inside my memory. Of course.

”Are you going to ask about my parents?” I asked, looking directly at him. He awkwardly rubbed his neck. 

“Yes. Are they… you know, alive?” He hesitantly asked me but quickly mumbled to himself, berating himself. “No, that is a bad way of asking it.” 

I looked down at my legs, nausea building up in my stomach at a high rate as my brain forced me to remember my mother and father. I had brought a few pictures of them with me as a way of comfort and feel like they were there with me, even though they weren’t by my side anymore. I carefully lifted a hand to place around the bottom of my stomach, biting on my lip as I tried to come up with an answer.

“They… they are not alive, no.” I spoke with a voice too low, almost turning into a whisper but I forced myself to speak louder. “They have been dead for eleven years now.” I sighed at the end and let my head lean back to touch the bookcase, staring up at the darkened ceiling. 

My mind flooded with memories of the times I was a child along with my parents. Many of them were wonderful memories as well as bittersweet. I remembered back to the beach we had gone to as a short vacation. It was near where my aunt lived, which was the place we had also stayed at a lot during our vacations. I remember finding a dead jellyfish on the sand and my mother holding my hand, close to her side for me to not walk off somewhere else as I often did. Also to keep me from touching dead animals.

I heard Daavit speak softly beside me. “I am so sorry to hear about that.” He sounded genuine. I craned my neck to look over to his side. Sadness was displayed mostly on his eyes as the glow had decreased and eyes widened somewhat. I gave him a small smile, attempting on making myself and Daavit feel better.

“It’s alright.” I said and turned my head back to face forward, finding myself staring at the folded suit on the floor. It has been eleven years. I have grieved and I have gotten better with dealing with it. However, sometimes your brain simply doesn’t care and you get slapped on the head with a reminder that nothing would ever be the same again. It happened many times and many times I would do nothing for a day as I felt sick from the way it affected me. Just like it was doing to me at the moment. God, I missed them so much. 

Daavit didn’t say anything, only watched me in the darkness. I assumed he was concerned about me, but I really didn’t want to worry him and I wanted to distract myself. I returned my eyes to the folded suit and stared at the helmet on top of it for a while. An idea came to mind.

“Would you like to listen to some music?” I asked Daavit and pushed myself up from the carpeted floor. 

“Music?”

I walked up to the helmet and bent down, tapping on the visor. The lines returned on the transparent screen, Star’s muffled voice speaking. 

“What can I help you with?” It asked. I picked the helmet up and hummed for a second.

”Can you make your speakers louder? So we can hear you from a bit away.” I asked Star and watched the screen lines pause for a short second before continuing to move.

”How does it sound?” Their voice boomed, which somewhat startled me and almost dropped the helmet, but I managed to keep it in my hands. 

”That’s great! Though, a little too loud…” I mumbled and laughed a little as I rubbed my ears. I didn’t want to bother anyone with some music people might find annoying as hell. We weren’t in a car.

Star’s lines went down again. I didn’t need to wait that long before their voice could be heard, clear and not as loud as before. ”How about now?” 

”Perfect.” I said and put the helmet down. Then I hummed for a moment, thinking of what songs to play in this situation. I had plenty in mind but I wanted something that fit. “Play the album Fantastic Planet.” I requested and watched Star’s lines go down for a moment before a screen showed up, displaying the album cover and began playing the first song that came on. It would be played in the background now.

I smiled to myself and looked over my shoulder to Daavit, who was staring at me with very curious eyes and tilted his head in reaction to the music.

“Enjoy the human music, Daavit!”


End file.
